“Nevertheless, it is my first and I hope it will be my last intrigue”

“I hope she won’t defy me to ’give evidence of my health.”

“You are quite well so far, I think?”

“Yes; and, by the way, it is possible she may only have leucorrhoea.  I am longing to see the end of the piece, and to set my mind at rest.”

“Will you give Madame an account of our scheme?”

“Yes; but I shall not be able to give you the credit you deserve.”

“I only want to have credit in your eyes.”

“You cannot doubt that I honour you immensely, and I shall certainly not deprive you of the reward that is your due.”

“The only reward I ask for is for you to be perfectly open with me.”

“You are very wonderful.  Why do you interest yourself so much in my affairs?  I don’t like to think you are really inquisitive.”

“You would be wrong to think that I have a defect which would lower me in my own eyes.  Be sure, sir, that I shall only be curious when you are sad.”

“But what can have made you feel so generously towards me?”

“Only your honourable conduct towards me.”

“You touch me profoundly, and I promise to confide in you for the future.”

“You will make me happy.”

Le Duc had scarcely gone an hour when a messenger on foot came to bring me a second letter from the widow.  He also gave me a small packet, telling me that he had orders to wait for a reply.  I sent him down to wait, and I gave the letter to Madame Dubois, that she might see what it contained.  While she was reading it I leant upon the window, my heart beating violently.

“Everything is getting on famously,” cried my housekeeper.  “Here is the letter; read it.”

“Whether I am being told the truth, or whether I am the victim of a myth arising from your fertile imagination (for which you are too well known all over Europe), I will regard the whole story as being true, as I am not in a position to disprove it.  I am deeply grieved to have injured an innocent man who has never done me any ill, and I will willingly pay the penalty by giving him a sum which will be more than sufficient to cure him of the plague with which I infected him.  I beg that you will give him the twenty-five louis I am sending you; they will serve to restore him to health, and to make him forget the bitterness of the pleasure I am so sorry to have procured for him.  And now are you sufficiently generous to employ your authority as master to enjoin on your man the most absolute secrecy?  I hope so, for you have reason to dread my vengeance otherwise.  Consider that, if this affair is allowed to transpire, it will be easy for me to give it a turn which may be far from pleasant to you, and which will force the worthy man you are deceiving to open his eyes; for I have not changed my opinion, as I have too many proofs of your understanding with his wife.  As I do not desire that we should meet again, I shall go to Lucerne on the pretext of family concerns.  Let me know that you have got this letter.”