Such were Madame de Hansfeld's reflections when the prince entered her apartment, having just quitted Pierre Raimond. His demeanour was even more firm, more imperious than on the preceding evening. "It appears, madame, that you are not hurrying yourself in your preparations for departure," he observed dryly; "but as you will not visit or receive company at the Château de Hansfeld, whither I send you, you have no great need of much preparation of toilette. You may take your diamonds, I relinquish them to you. Frantz, who will have charge of you to Germany, is incorruptible, and my only hesitation in leaving you your jewels was the apprehension that you might bribe your guide by their means." Madame de Hansfeld interrupted her husband. "I thank you, sir, for affording me the opportunity of returning these ornaments to you and rising from her chair she went towards a _secrétaire_, whence she took a large casket, which she handed to the prince. "In other days I accepted these presents, but for a long time I have desired to restore them into your hands." "Be it so!" said the prince, taking them with indifference; "the most affectionate tenderness, the most devoted love, have been unavailing with you, my generosity therefore must have been powerless. It is true," he added, with a smile of crushing contempt, "I had by a settlement assigned the larger portion of my property to you; and, after my decease, you would have inherited all--these jewels inclusive." "Sir?" "Only as you have appeared somewhat in a hurry to enjoy these advantages, I have found means to realise a portion of my fortune which has neutralised my previous settlement. I tell you this, in order to convince you that should I die to-morrow, your interested hopes will be frustrated. Perhaps I should have told you this earlier, and it might have spared you some rather hazardous experiments, which your ardent desire to be a widow explains, but by no means excuses," added De Hansfeld, with cutting irony. These cruel words made a strange impression on Madame de Hansfeld, perfectly indifferent to the reproaches they comprised, and which she did not comprehend, for she did not in any way deserve them; she was only struck with their injustice and cruelty. Had De Hansfeld died at that moment at her feet, she would have been far from regretting it, for at that instant she recollected what De Morville had written to her, "_My love will be always unpropitious, since I cannot aspire to your hand._" But the princess was soon ashamed and horrified at her thought, or, rather, her atrocious wish, and replied coldly to her husband,-- "I do not desire to comprehend the sense of your words, monsieur, it is as odious as it is absurd. As to the question of interest, you know it was against my wish that you made so large a settlement on me, and it is only exceedingly natural that you should alter your mind at such an arrangement."