As she approached the Villa Helmholtz, with Andryana's letter in her hand, Ely had not the faintest suspicion of the terrible tragedy drawing near. She was not happy; in fact, joy did not exist for her now that she was separated so cruelly from Pierre. But she felt a bitter satisfaction in her vengeance, a feeling that she was to pay for very dearly. Hardly had she entered the house when she sent a request to the Prince, who never lunched with her now, to be granted an audience, and she was ushered into the laboratory, which she had only visited about three times. The heir of the Hapsburgs, a big apron wrapped around him and a little cap upon his head, was standing in the scientific workshop before the furnace of a forge, in which he was heating a bar of iron which he held in his acid-eaten hands. A little further away Verdier was arranging some electric batteries. He was dressed like his employer. There was nothing in the entire room, which was lighted from the ceiling, except complicated machines, mysterious instruments and apparatus whose use was unknown to any but the scientists. The two men, thus surprised in the exercise of their profession, had that attentive and reflective physiognomy that experimental science always gives to its followers. It is easy to recognize in it a certain submission to the object, a patience imposed by the necessary duration of a phenomenon, the certainty of the result to be gained by waiting--noble, intellectual virtues created by constant attention to natural law. Nevertheless, in spite of the calmness he displayed in his work, it was plain that care hung over the assistant. The Prince appeared rejuvenated by his gayety, but it was an evil, wicked gayety, which the presence of his wife appeared to render even more cruel. He met her with this sentence, the words being full of hideous allusions:-- "What has given us the honor of your visit to our pandemonium? It is not very gay at the first glance, yet we are happier here than anywhere else. Natural science gives you a sensation that your life does not even know of--a sensation of truth. There cannot be either falsehood or deception in an experiment that has been carefully performed. Is that not so, Verdier?" "I am happy to hear Your Highness speak in that way," replied the young woman, returning irony for irony. "Since you are so fond of the truth, you will help me, I hope, to secure justice for a person who has been cruelly slandered here, perhaps even to you, Your Highness, and certainly to Monsieur Verdier." "I don't understand," said the Archduke, whose visage suddenly darkened. "We are not society people, and Monsieur Verdier and I do not permit any one to be calumniated before us. When we believe anything against any one, we have decided proof. Is not that so, Verdier?" and he turned toward his assistant, who did not reply.