house, where the Colonel on arriving found everything in readiness for
his stay there, as well as for his wife's. Misfortune is a kind of
talisman whose virtue consists in its power to confirm our original
nature; in some men it increases their distrust and malignancy, just
as it improves the goodness of those who have a kind heart.

Sorrow had made the Colonel even more helpful and good than he had
always been, and he could understand some secrets of womanly distress
which are unrevealed to most men. Nevertheless, in spite of his loyal
trustfulness, he could not help saying to his wife:

"Then you felt quite sure you would bring me here?"

"Yes," replied she, "if I found Colonel Chabert in Derville's client."

The appearance of truth she contrived to give to this answer
dissipated the slight suspicions which the Colonel was ashamed to have
felt. For three days the Countess was quite charming to her first
husband. By tender attentions and unfailing sweetness she seemed
anxious to wipe out the memory of the sufferings he had endured, and
to earn forgiveness for the woes which, as she confessed, she had
innocently caused him. She delighted in displaying for him the charms
she knew he took pleasure in, while at the same time she assumed a
kind of melancholy; for men are more especially accessible to certain
ways, certain graces of the heart or of the mind which they cannot
resist. She aimed at interesting him in her position, and appealing to
his feelings so far as to take possession of his mind and control him
despotically.

Ready for anything to attain her ends, she did not yet know what she