as quickly as possible. The emoluments derived by the Count from the
places he held she spent on the housekeeping, so as to reinvest her
dividends; and Delbecq lent himself to these calculations of avarice
without trying to account for her motives. People of that sort never
trouble themselves about any secrets of which the discovery is not
necessary to their own interests. And, indeed, he naturally found the
reason in the thirst for money, which taints almost every Parisian
woman; and as a fine fortune was needed to support the pretensions of
Comte Ferraud, the secretary sometimes fancied that he saw in the
Countess' greed a consequence of her devotion to a husband with whom
she still was in love. The Countess buried the secrets of her conduct
at the bottom of her heart. There lay the secrets of life and death to
her, there lay the turning-point of this history.

At the beginning of the year 1818 the Restoration was settled on an
apparently immovable foundation; its doctrines of government, as
understood by lofty minds, seemed calculated to bring to France an era
of renewed prosperity, and Parisian society changed its aspect. Madame
la Comtesse Ferraud found that by chance she had achieved for love a
marriage that had brought her fortune and gratified ambition. Still
young and handsome, Madame Ferraud played the part of a woman of
fashion, and lived in the atmosphere of the Court. Rich herself, with
a rich husband who was cried up as one of the ablest men of the
royalist party, and, as a friend of the King, certain to be made
Minister, she belonged to the aristocracy, and shared its
magnificence. In the midst of this triumph she was attacked by a moral
canker. There are feelings which women guess in spite of the care men
take to bury them. On the first return of the King, Comte Ferraud had
begun to regret his marriage. Colonel Chabert's widow had not been the
means of allying him to anybody; he was alone and unsupported in