"Your uncle! Sapristi! he's a dear creature, is your uncle; let's talk about something else. Why, I have been here a hundred times; I wanted to get your address, so that I could write to you or come after you; but it was impossible to obtain the slightest information from your uncle. When did you return?" "Last night, at nine o'clock. But why were you so anxious to know where I was? What had you to tell me that was so important?" "Hasn't your uncle told you anything?" "We had a talk this morning, on business; that's all." "Ah! the old fox! there's no danger that he would tell you what interested you most." "Then do you tell me, quickly, Cherami." "Your former passion, that little woman you loved so dearly----" "Fanny! Great God! is she dead?" "No, no! she's not dead; she's in bewitching health, she's just as pretty as ever, and more than that--she's a widow." "A widow! Great heaven! can it be possible?" "It's more than possible, it's so. Her husband speculated in stocks, and ruined himself; then, _crac_! a pistol-shot--you understand." "Oh! what a calamity! Why, it's perfectly ghastly; how long ago was it?" "Almost immediately after you went away." "Poor Fanny! she expected to find her happiness in that marriage; how she must have grieved! how bitterly she must have wept!" "My dear Gustave, you don't know that young woman at all. She has very great strength of character; she received the news of her husband's death with a stoical courage worthy of the Spartan women who sent their sons to war, bidding them to return as victors or not at all." "How do you know that, Cherami?" "Pardieu! because it was I to whom her husband confided his last wishes and the mission of informing his wife of his death." "To you! you who fought a duel with him?" "Precisely! that duel made us the best friends in the world. I will tell you all about it in detail another time. Let it suffice for the present, that the young widow, who is already thoroughly consoled, does not cease to talk about you, to ask about you, and to inquire whether you will return soon." "Is that true? you are not deceiving me? Fanny thinks of me?" "It is as I have the honor to tell you, and, between ourselves, I believe that she never really loved her husband--which explains why she wasted so little regret on him." "All that you tell me surprises me so that I can't collect my thoughts. Fanny widowed! Fanny free!" "Yes, widowed, and more than six months passed already! By the way,--and this is the first question I should have asked you,--do you still love her?" "Do I still love her! Ah! my dear Arthur, can you doubt it?" "It seems to me that you have had plenty of time and a perfect right to forget her. I seem to recall that that was your hope when you went away."