“Look you, Armand, I am sorry that I didn’t marry you; we should never have parted.” Monsieur de Merval shook his head slightly and answered with a smile: “No one knows, no one knows!” Madame de Grangeville blushed, then assumed a serious air. “You may perhaps believe all the slanders that Monsieur de Brévanne no doubt spread about me?” “I knew nothing, heard nothing, madame. Monsieur de Brévanne is too well-bred a man to say anything which could possibly injure your reputation.” “Oh! when a man is jealous, monsieur, when he fancies himself betrayed, he is sometimes so absurd!” Monsieur de Merval made no reply, but continued to look about the salon, and seemed painfully affected by the lack of harmony in the furniture. “Yes,” said Madame de Grangeville after a long pause, “women are always the victims; that is their fate; the men make the laws for us, and we are the weaker party in every respect; we must needs endure the harsh treatment, the violent scenes, the sarcasms of those gentlemen. I tell you, Armand, that all the fault is on the men’s part; I know it, poor abandoned wife that I am!” Monsieur de Merval, who seemed far from convinced by the lamentations of his old acquaintance, rejoined: “And Monsieur de Roncherolle, what have you done with him, madame? He was a very amiable, very gallant gentleman, who had great success with the ladies. A good-looking fellow, a hard drinker, and of a courage proof against any test; he had everything that a man needs to succeed.” The face of the abandoned wife had undergone a complete transformation; her lips were compressed, her brow was wrinkled, her eyes assumed a vague expression, and she retorted in a decidedly curt tone: “Why do you apply to me for news of Monsieur de Roncherolle? What reason have you to think that I can tell you anything about him?” “Really, madame, I had no idea of offending you by asking you that question; but a good friend of mine who met you thirteen or fourteen years ago in the Pyrenees, at the Baths of Bagnères, I believe, told me then that you were travelling with Roncherolle; that was what made me think that perhaps you still kept up some relations with him.” Madame de Grangeville was disconcerted. “Oh! yes,” she stammered, “that is true; I did meet Monsieur de Roncherolle when I was travelling in the Pyrenees, and we travelled together for some little time. Well, Monsieur de Merval, do you see any harm in that? After all, wasn’t I at liberty to travel with whomever I pleased, since I had already been separated from my husband for several years?” “I have already had the honor to tell you, madame, that I see no harm anywhere; I simply repeated what I have heard, as we were talking of our old acquaintances, that is all.--And in your financial affairs, I most sincerely hope that you have not suffered, madame? You had an independent fortune, I believe?” “Yes, that is true, I had a fortune--I had one.”