a common interest in avoiding all scandal, and arranging matters. But it
rests with the poor little one. Mamma wished me to go, this afternoon,
to beseech her to reconsider her resolution. For she has told her father
she never wishes to hear the Prince's voice again. I have refused.
Mamma insists. Am I not right?"

"Who knows?" replied Julien. "What would be her life alone with her
father, now that her illusions with regard to him have been swept away?"

The touching scene had indeed taken place, and less than twenty-four
hours after the novelist had thus expressed to himself the regret of not
assisting at it. Only he was mistaken as to the tenor of the dialogue,
in a manner which proved that the subtlety of intelligence will never
divine the simplicity of the heart. The most dolorous of all moral
tragedies knit and unknit the most often in silence. It was in the
afternoon, toward six o'clock, that a servant came to announce
Mademoiselle Hafner's visit to the Contessina, busy at that moment
reading for the tenth time the 'Eglogue Mondaine,' that delicate story by
Dorsenne. When Fanny entered the room, Alba could see what a trial her
charming god-daughter of the past week had sustained, by the surprising
and rapid alteration in that expressive and noble visage. She took her
hand at first without speaking to her, as if she was entirely ignorant of
the cause of her friend's real indisposition. She then said:

"How pleased I am to see you! Are you better?"

"I have never been ill," replied Fanny, who did not know how to tell an
untruth. "I have had pain, that is all." Looking at Alba, as if to beg
her to ask no question, she added: