"That cannot be, my good, generous Bertha; my day of work has not yet closed."
"Bertha!" exclaimed the countess, who, until then, had stood trembling with anger, and unable to command her voice. "Bertha, have you quite forgotten yourself? Remember that you are under my guardianship, and I forbid your having any association with Mademoiselle de Gramont."
Madeleine advanced with calm dignity towards the countess, and said quietly,—
"Madame—aunt"—
The countess interrupted her imperiously.
"Aunt! Do you dare to address me by that title? You—a dressmaker! When you forgot your noble birth, and lowered yourself to the working-classes, making yourself one with them,—when you demeaned yourself to gain your bread by your needle, bread which should have choked a de Gramont to eat,—you should also have forgotten your relationship to me, never to remember it again!"
"If I did not forget it, madame," answered Madeleine, with calm self-respect, "I was at least careful that my condition should not become known to you. I strove to act as though I had been dead to you, that my existence might not cause you mortification. I could not guard against the accident which has thrown us together once more, but for the last time, as far as my will is concerned."
"This meeting was not Mademoiselle Madeleine's fault," cried M. de Bois, coming to the rescue. "It was my folly,—another blunder of mine! I was dolt enough to think that you had only to see her for all to be well; and, instead of warning Mademoiselle Madeleine that you were in Washington, I kept from her a knowledge which would have prevented your encountering each other. It was all my imprudence, my miscalculation! I see my error since it has subjected her to insult; and yet what I did," continued he more passionately, and regarding Maurice, as he spoke, "was for the sake of one who"—
Madeleine, seized with a sudden dread of the manner in which he might conclude this sentence, broke in abruptly,—
"Were I not indebted to you, M. de Bois, for so many kindnesses, I might reproach you now; but it was well for me to learn this lesson; it was well for me to be certain that my aunt would discard me because I preferred honest industry to cold charity."