Bertin, arriving at dinner-time, exclaimed on seeing her: 

“You are dazzling this evening!”

And this exclamation sent a warm wave of happiness through her being.

When they were leaving the table, the Count, who had a passion for billiards, offered to play a game with Bertin, and the two ladies accompanied them to the billiard-room, where the coffee was served.

The men were still playing when the Duchess was announced, and they all returned to the drawing-room.  Madame de Corbelle and her husband presented themselves at the same time, their voices full of tears.  For some minutes it seemed, from the doleful tones, that everyone was about to weep; but little by little, after a few tender words and inquiries, another current of thought set in; the voices took on a more cheerful tone, and everyone began to talk naturally, as if the shadow of the misfortune that had saddened them had suddenly been dissipated.

Then Bertin rose, took Annette by the hand, led her under the portrait of her mother, in the ray of light from the reflector, and said: 

“Isn’t this stupefying?”

The Duchess was so greatly surprised that she seemed dazed; she repeated many times:  “Heavens! is it possible?  Heavens! is it possible?  It is like someone raised from the dead.  To think that I did not see that when I came in!  Oh, my little Any, I find you again, I, who knew you so well then in your first mourning as a woman—­no, in your second, for you had already lost your father.  Oh, that Annette, in black like that—­why, it is her mother come back to earth!  What a miracle!  Without that portrait we never should have perceived it.  Your daughter resembles you very much, but she resembles that portrait much more.”

Musadieu now appeared, having heard of Madame de Guilleroy’s return, as he wished to be one of the first to offer her the “homage of his sorrowful sympathy.”

He interrupted his first speech on perceiving the young girl standing against the frame, illumined by the same ray of light, appearing like the living sister of the painting.

“Ah, that is certainly one of the most astonishing things I ever have seen,” he exclaimed.

The Corbelles, whose convictions always followed established opinions, marveled in their turn with a little less exuberant ardor.

The Countess’s heart seemed to contract, little by little, as if all these exclamations of astonishment had hurt it.  Without speaking, she looked at her daughter standing by the image of herself, and a sudden feeling of weakness came over her.  She longed to cry out:  “Say no more!  I know very well that she resembles me!”

Until the end of the evening she remained in a melancholy mood, having lost once more the confidence she had felt the day before.

Bertin was chatting with her when the Marquis de Farandal was announced.  As soon as the painter saw him enter and approach the hostess he rose and glided behind her armchair, murmuring:  “This is delightful!  There comes that great animal now.”  Then, making a detour of the apartment, he reached the door and departed.