"So on the next occasion I did not lose sight of M. de Chateau Renaud. Perhaps he noticed my looks and it seemed to me that he was chatting in undertones to Emily and holding me up to ridicule. "Had I yielded to my feelings I would have challenged him that evening, but I reflected that such conduct would be absurd, and restrained myself. "Every Wednesday thenceforth was a greater trial than the last. "M. de Chateau Renaud is quite a man of the world, a dandy--a lion--I know how superior he is to me in many respects. But it seems to me that Emily values him more highly than he deserves. "Soon I found out that I was not the only one who remarked her preference for M. de Chateau Renaud, and this preference increased to such an extent and became so obvious that one day Giordano, who like me was an habitué of the house, spoke to me about it. "From that moment my resolution was taken. I determined to speak to Emily on the subject, convinced that she was only acting thoughtlessly and I had but to call her attention to the matter to have it remedied. "But to my great astonishment she took my remonstrances in joke, pretended that I was mad, and that those who agreed with me were as stupid as I was. "However, I insisted. "Emily only replied, that she would leave to my own decision as to whether a man in love was not necessarily a prejudiced judge. "I remained perfectly stupefied; her husband must have told her everything. "Now you will understand that under these circumstances, and being an unhappy and jealous lover, and only making myself objectionable to the lady, I ceased to visit at the house. "But although I did not go to her parties I did not the less hear the gossip that was afloat, nor was I the less unhappy, for these reports were assuming a tangible shape. "I resolved therefore to write to her, and beg her in the strongest language of which I was capable, for her own and her husband's sake, to be careful. She never answered my letter. "Some time afterwards I heard it publicly stated that Emily was actually the mistress of Chateau Renaud. What I suffered I cannot express. "It was then my poor brother became conscious of my grief. "Then, after about a fortnight, you came back to Paris. The very day you called upon me I received an anonymous letter from a lady unknown appointing a meeting at the Opera Ball. "This woman said that she had certain information to convey to me respecting a lady friend of mine, whose Christian name only she would mention. "The name was Emily. "My correspondent said I should recognize her by her carrying a bouquet of violets. "I told you at the time that I did not wish to go to the ball, but I repeat I was hurried thither by fate.