The next questions are, when did they become lovers, and how did Musset discover their intimacy? It is quite certain that he suspected it, and that he made Pagello confess his love for George Sand.(20) A most extraordinary scene then took place between the three of them, according to George Sand's own account. "Adieu, then," she wrote to Musset, later on, "adieu to the fine poem of our sacred friendship and of that ideal bond formed between the three of us, when you dragged from him the confession of his love for me and when he vowed to you that he would make me happy. Oh, that night of enthusiasm, when, in spite of us, you joined our hands, saying: 'You love each other and yet you love me, for you have saved me, body and soul." Thus, then, Musset had solemnly abjured his love for George Sand, he had engaged his mistress of the night before to a new lover, and was from henceforth to be their best friend. Such was the ideal bond, such the sacred friendship! This may be considered the romantic escapade. (20) On one of George Sand's unpublished letters to Buloz the following lines are written in the handwriting of Buloz: "In the morning on getting up he discovered, in an adjoining room, a tea-table still set, but with only one cup. "'Did you have tea yesterday evening?' "'Yes,' answered George Sand, 'I had tea with the doctor.' "'Ah, how is it that there is only one cup?' "'The other has been taken away.' "'No, nothing has been taken away. You drank out of the same cup.' "'Even if that were so, you have no longer the right to trouble about such things.' "'I have the right, as I am still supposed to be your lover. You ought at least to show me respect, and, as I am leaving in three days, you might wait until I have gone to do as you like.' "The night following this scene Musset discovered George Sand, crouching on her bed, writing a letter. "'What are you doing?' he asked. "'I am reading,' she replied, and she blew out the candle. "'If you are reading, why do you put the candle out?' "'It went out itself: light it again.' "Alfred de Musset lit it again. "'Ah, so you were reading, and you have no book. Infamous woman, you might as well say that you are writing to your lover.' George Sand had recourse to her usual threat of leaving the house. Alfred de Musset read her up: 'You are thinking of a horrible plan. You want to hurry off to your doctor, pretend that I am mad and that your life is in danger. You will not leave this room. I will keep you from anything so base. If you do go, I will put such an epitaph on your grave that the people who read it will turn pale,' said Alfred with terrible energy. "George Sand was trembling and crying. "'I no longer love you,' Alfred said scoffingly to George Sand.