"Oh, Madame, I am trying--despite you, despite Albert--to find a way of avoiding this separation. It seems to me that had you wished to do so, you could easily have triumphed over your--your rival. This letter speaks only of an intellectual attraction. The scenes to which she alludes only pertain to impressions of historical places, and are the expressions of a certain mental exaltation." Without any definite purpose, Mme. Molay-Norrois returned. Some people have this privilege. Elizabeth gently requested her to take the children away. Marie Louise, who resembled her father, with dark eyes like his, ever in a state of eager curiosity, her features rather pronounced, was looking at Philippe and listening to him attentively, while her mother feared the precocity of this little girl, who since their departure from Paris, had often asked rather embarrassing questions. As to the little boy, plump and fair, he was obstinately tugging at the tassel of a cushion which he hastened to pull off, so as to carry something away with him. Once more alone with the lawyer, the young woman replaced the letter in its envelope. "Now that you have read it, the solicitor will have no further use for it. Shall I refuse to show it again until the trial comes up?" "That would be better." So the elaborate plan arranged by the clerks in the office of M. Tabourin was frustrated. Without the knowledge of their chief they had demanded twice in an official capacity the letter mentioned in the petition, merely for the purpose of convincing themselves. Then Elizabeth made a self-accusation of being only an ordinary woman, of not having "a soul at the same time declining and expectant, a soul of Autumn" and of being unable to understand psychological subtleties. Unaccustomed to irony, she did not hesitate to set it aside: "Besides, Albert himself did not deny it." "Ah, how did he defend himself?" "He did not defend himself: he accused me." "You?" "Yes, he had that audacity. He complained of I do not know how many imaginary miseries which he tried in vain to enumerate. And when I asked him 'What was lacking' he answered: 'To you, nothing; to me, everything.' Those were his absurd words. And when I threatened to go away with my children he did not even try to keep me back. Do you understand now that everything is over between us? To-day he is living with that woman, whom you are asking me to spare. She is almost old, almost ugly: let him keep her. As for me--I want to hear nothing more about it. It is over forever, yes, forever. You must not speak of it again."