"You are too indulgent, my friend." "I am just, and as little of a flatterer as Michael Angelo--am I not?" added the old man, with a hearty laugh. "This is my hour for lessons," said Bertha; "this sorrowful confidence has finished at the right time--it has quite saddened me. Oh! M. Arnold, what sufferings! You ought to have a great deal of happiness to make you forget them!" At this moment two of Bertha's young pupils entered and broke off the conversation. De Hansfeld left Pierre Raimond and his daughter, somewhat consoled by the confession he had made, but still regretting the _incognito_ he kept with them. More than ever desirous of sending his wife away the next day, De Hansfeld returned to the Hôtel Lambert. CHAPTER XXXI THREATS Madame de Hansfeld was in a dire perplexity. Her husband had insisted that she should set out next day for Germany, and it was therefore absolutely necessary for her to renounce M. de Morville, necessarily detained at Paris by the failing health of his mother. Paula's estrangement from the prince had become aversion--profound hatred; and she thought the feeling almost excusable in consequence of the whims and harsh proceedings of her husband. The last blow he inflicted upon her was most distressing of all--to force her to leave Paris at the very moment when her passion for De Morville, so long hidden, so long struggled with, was becoming as propitious as she could have hoped for. When Iris disclosed to her mistress that the prince very often went to Pierre Raimond's under a feigned name, in order to meet Madame de Brévannes, she had greatly excited Paula's ire against Bertha, as she felt assured that it was in order to keep up the _incognito_ that favoured his love the more easily that the prince insisted on her quitting Paris. After deep reflection, Paula believed that she had discovered a chance of effectual refusal to depart, even in the very passion of her husband for Madame de Brévannes. In spite of the prince's order, Madame de Hansfeld had not announced her intended departure to any person, nor had she made any preparation for the journey, hoping that, perchance, her husband would renounce his first determination. As to his threats of revealing his wife's crimes, and abandoning her to the justice of society, Paula had only considered that as a further proof of Arnold's aberration of mind. Until now, the different attacks of what she called the _derangement_ of De Hansfeld had inspired her with as much commiseration as alarm. But in the last conversation the prince had behaved so harshly, so unjustly, and she felt that she was so cruelly sacrificed to his affection for Bertha, that, wounded in her most sensitive part--her love for De Morville,--Paula divided her hatred between her husband and Madame de Brévannes.