him false. He had little conception of the terrible dramas which
are constantly enacted in these superb mansions, so admired and
envied by the passing crowd. He thought that the baroness would
be crushed--that she would fall on her knees before her husband.
What a mistake! The tone of her voice told him that, instead of
yielding, she was only bent on retaliation.

"Does your son-in-law do anything worse than you?" she exclaimed.
"How dare you censure him--you who drag your name through all the
gambling dens of Europe?"

"Wretch!" interrupted the baron, "wretch!" But quickly mastering
himself, he remarked: "Yes, it's true that I gamble. People say,
'That great Baron Trigault is never without cards in his hands!'
But you know very well that I really hold gambling in horror--that
I loathe it. But when I play, I sometimes forget--for I must
forget. I tried drink, but it wouldn't drown thought, so I had
recourse to cards; and when the stakes are large, and my fortune
is imperilled, I sometimes lose consciousness of my misery!"

The baroness gave vent to a cold, sneering laugh, and, in a tone
of mocking commiseration, she said: "Poor baron! It is no doubt in
the hope of forgetting your sorrows that you spend all your time--
when you are not gambling--with a woman named Lia d'Argeles.
She's rather pretty. I have seen her several times in the Bois----"

"Be silent!" exclaimed the baron, "be silent! Don't insult an
unfortunate woman who is a thousand times better than yourself."
And, feeling that he could endure no more--that he could no longer
restrain his passion, he cried: "Out of my sight! Go! or I sha'n't