"You mean to say, sir, that you ask from me one more day to reflect on my proposals? That is a good sign, and I grant the delay. The day after to-morrow, at this hour, I will come here again, and it shall be between us peace or war,--I repeat it,--but a 'war to the knife,' without mercy or pity." And Sarah left the room. * * * * * "All goes well," she said. "This miserable girl, in whom Rodolph capriciously takes so much interest, and has sent to the farm at Bouqueval, in order, no doubt, to make her his mistress hereafter, is no longer to be feared,--thanks to the one-eyed woman who has freed me from her. Rodolph's adroitness has saved Madame d'Harville from the snare into which I meant she should fall; but it is impossible that she can escape from the fresh plot I have laid for her, and thus she must be for ever lost to Rodolph. Thus, saddened, discouraged, isolated from all affection, will he not be in a frame of mind such as will best suit my purpose of making him the dupe of a falsehood to which, by the notary's aid, I can give every impress of truth? And the notary will aid me, for I have frightened him. I shall easily find a young orphan girl, interesting and poor, who, taught her lesson by me, will fill the character of our child so bitterly mourned by Rodolph. I know the expansiveness, the generosity of his heart,--yes, to give a name, a rank to her whom he will believe to be his daughter, till now forsaken and abandoned, he will renew those bonds between us which I believed indissoluble. The predictions of my nurse will be at length realised, and I shall thus and then attain the constant aim of my life,--a crown!" * * * * * Sarah had scarcely left the notary before M. Charles Robert entered, after alighting from a very dashing cabriolet. He went like a person on most intimate terms to the private room of Jacques Ferrand. The commandant, as Madame Pipelet called him, entered without ceremony into the notary's cabinet, whom he found in a surly, bilious mood, and who thus accosted him: "I reserve the afternoon for my clients; when you wish to speak to me come in the morning, will you?" "My dear lawyer" (this was a standing pleasantry of M. Robert), "I have a very important matter to talk about in the first place, and, in the next, I was anxious to assure you in person against any alarms you might have--" "What alarms?" "What! Haven't you heard?" "What?" "Of my duel--" "Your duel?" "With the Duke de Lucenay. Is it possible you have not heard of it?" "Quite possible." "Pooh! pooh!" "But what did you fight about?" "A very serious matter, which called for bloodshed. Only imagine that, at a very large party, M. de Lucenay actually said that I had a phlegmy cough!" "That you had--" "A phlegmy cough, my dear lawyer; a complaint which is really most ridiculously absurd!" "And did you fight about that?"