herself to convince him that there was no need for other information than
she could give, and did all she could to blot the whole affair from his
memory; and her success was such that at the end of the interview the
duke was more enamoured and more credulous than ever, and believing he
had done her wrong, he delivered himself up to her, bound hand and foot.
Two days later he installed his mistress in another dwelling....

Madame Rapally also resolved to give up her rooms, and removed to a house
that belonged to her, on the Pont Saint-Michel.

The commander took the condition of Charlotte Boullenois very much to
heart. The physician under whose care he had placed her, after examining
her wounds, had not given much hope of her recovery. It was not that de
Jars was capable of a lasting love, but Charlotte was young and possessed
great beauty, and the romance and mystery surrounding their connection
gave it piquancy. Charlotte's disguise, too, which enabled de Jars to
conceal his success and yet flaunt it in the face, as it were, of public
morality and curiosity, charmed him by its audacity, and above all he was
carried away by the bold and uncommon character of the girl, who, not
content with a prosaic intrigue, had trampled underfoot all social
prejudices and proprieties, and plunged at once into unmeasured and
unrestrained dissipation; the singular mingling in her nature of the
vices of both sexes; the unbridled licentiousness of the courtesan
coupled with the devotion of a man for horses, wine, and fencing; in
short, her eccentric character, as it would now be called, kept a passion
alive which would else have quickly died away in his blase heart.
Nothing would induce him to follow Jeannin's advice to leave Paris for at
least a few weeks, although he shared Jeannin's fear that the statement
they had been forced to give the stranger would bring them into trouble.
The treasurer, who had no love affair on hand, went off; but the