Julie dared not finish her thought. Marcel thought that he ought not to question her. There was a pause, embarrassing to them both, then Julie exclaimed abruptly: "Ah! _mon Dieu_, do not think that I am tempted to be false to my duty and to enter into a frivolous liaison!--I was thinking--I must tell you--I was thinking that I should do better to desire an obscure marriage in which I might find happiness." "Obscure?" said Marcel. "That depends on what you mean by the word. You must insist upon wealth in any event; for, I warn you that if you hold your rank cheap, the Estrelle family will abandon you to your destruction." "Well, what then?" "What then? Why, if the husband of your choice is poor and you bring him debts----" "Ah! yes, you are right; I increase his poverty with all my wretchedness and all the dangers that are hanging over me. I did not think of that. You see what a weak head mine is! Look you, Monsieur Thierry, there are days when I would like to be dead, and you do wrong not to take me to the play. I feel very depressed this evening, and I would like to be able to forget that I exist." "Is it as bad as that?" rejoined Marcel hastily, terrified by her distressed expression. "In that case put on a very thick black veil and a very full black cape; I have a cab below; we will call for my wife, to whom I will explain your whim in two words, and we will go to hear _Polyeucte_, which will change the current of your thoughts. Hurry! for if anyone comes you won't be able to go out." Julie jumped for joy like a child. She quickly transformed herself into a nun, dismissed her servants for the evening, and went with Marcel, half pleased, half frightened, and as excited as if this escapade with a solicitor and his wife were an adventure big with fate. "And Madame Thierry?" she said when they were in the cab. "Madame Thierry--we will leave her where she is," said Marcel. "Nothing has been said to her about going, and she would delay us while dressing. Besides, I should prefer--if you are to be recognized in spite of all our precautions--that you should not be seen with a woman who has a grown-up son--of whom, I may say parenthetically, Uncle Antoine has been exceedingly jealous. Mine is only a little law-student in embryo, barely twelve years old; we will take him, and that will make our bourgeois and--patriarchal party complete."