For a moment Madeline did not reply. She disliked Madame de Fontenay, and yet she feared her. She knew that the widow had been instrumental in marrying her to Monsieur Belleisle, and, not content with that, had kept with them, watching as the hawk watches the dove the poor victim whom she had caught, and frequently preventing by her very presence, anything like a proper understanding between man and wife. And Madeline had a repulsion for the woman. She felt that she was the Frenchman’s evil genius, ready to pander to his passions, and counteract any inclination he might have towards nobility and goodness. Still the pale widow’s star was in the ascendant just then, and Madeline was powerless. She felt it would be unwise to make an open enemy of Madame; at any rate until she had won over her accomplice. So she parried the question politely, and fixed her eyes on the case which Madame held in her hand. ‘Diamonds, did you say, for me, Madame? I thought Monsieur Belleisle was poor?’ ‘So he was a week ago, but now he gives you these--put them on, my child--and hurry down, for Emile is waiting;’ and without saying more she quitted the room. Madeline opened the case which the widow had left behind her, and looked in surprise at the contents. Three diamond stones for the hair, a ruby band for the neck, and a fragile diamond bracelet for the arm. She put them on, and, throwing a thin lace scarf over her shoulders, ran down stairs. She found Monsieur Belleisle waiting for her, clad also in becoming evening dress, and looking handsomer than she had ever seen him look before. He glanced at her approvingly from head to foot, kissed her, and led her to a carriage, which was waiting at the door, and which already held Madame de Fontenay. As soon as they were seated the horses moved off; whither, Madeline did not know. A drive of a few minutes brought them to the door of a brilliantly lighted building. The horses were pulled up; Monsieur Belleisle alighted, handed out Madame de Fontenay, then tenderly lifted Madeline in his arms and put her on the ground. He placed her hand upon his arm and led her forward--through a great lobby, and finally into a room where some two hundred people were seated at dinner. The entrance of the three last guests attracted a good deal of attention. Madeline, still holding her husbands arm, and led by him down one side of the long room and up the other, began to blush and cast down her eyes in confusion, for she felt herself rapidly becoming the centre of observation.