Hope had fled; despair had come.

This man who had left her presence with a threat upon his lips would return to torture her now.  How could she escape him?

To-day she had succeeded in subduing her heart and conscience; would she again have the strength to master her feelings?

She well knew that her calmness and courage were entirely due to the inaptness of Clameran.

Why did he not use entreaties instead of threats?

When Louis spoke of Raoul, she could scarcely conceal her emotion; her maternal heart yearned toward the innocent child who was expiating his mother’s faults.

A chill of horror passed over her at the idea of his enduring the pangs of hunger.

Her child wanting bread, when she, his mother, was rolling in wealth!

Ah, why could she not lay all her possessions at his feet?  With what delight would she undergo the greatest privations for his sake!  If she could but send him enough money to support him comfortably!

But no; she could not take this step without compromising herself and her family.

Prudence forbade her acceptance of the intervention of Louis de Clameran.

To confide in him, was placing herself, and all she held dear, at his mercy—­at the mercy of a man who inspired her with instinctive terror.

Then she began to ask herself if he had spoken the truth, or had trumped up this story to frighten her?

In thinking over Louis’s story, it seemed improbable and disconnected.

If Gaston had been living in Paris, in the poverty described by his brother, why had he not demanded of the married woman the deposit intrusted to the maiden?

Why, when anxious about the future of their child, had he not come to her, if he had such confidence in her generosity?  If he intrusted her on his death-bed, why had he not shown this trust while living?

A thousand vague apprehensions beset her mind; she felt suspicion and distrust of everyone and everything.

She was aware that the time had come for her to take a decisive step, and upon this step depended her whole future peace and happiness.  If she once yielded, what would not be exacted of her in the future?  She would certainly be made to suffer if she refused to yield.  If she had only some wise friend to advise her!

For a moment she thought of throwing herself at her husband’s feet and confessing all.

Unfortunately, she thrust aside this means of salvation.  She pictured to herself the mortification and sorrow that her noble-hearted husband would suffer upon discovering, after a lapse of twenty years, how shamefully he had been deceived, how his confidence and love had been betrayed.

Having been once deceived, would he ever trust her again?  Would he believe in her fidelity as a wife, when he discovered that she had uttered her marriage vows to love and honor him, when her heart was already given to another?