At last he heard a rapid, light step in the hall; and almost immediately the Countess Claudieuse appeared. He recognized her at once, such as Jacques had described her to him, calm, serious, and serene, as if her soul were soaring high above all human passions. Far from diminishing her exquisite beauty, the terrible events of the last months had only surrounded her, as it were, with a divine halo. She had fallen off a little, however. And the dark semicircle under her eyes, and the disorder of her hair, betrayed the fatigue and the anxiety of the long nights which she had spent by her husband’s bedside.
As M. Folgat was bowing, she asked,—
“You are M. de Boiscoran’s counsel?”
“Yes, madam,” replied the young advocate.
“The doctor tells me you wish to speak to me.”
“Yes, madam.”
With a queenly air, she pointed to a chair, and, sitting down herself, she said,—
“I hear, sir.”
M. Folgat began with beating heart, but a firm voice,—
“I ought, first of all, madam, to state to you my client’s true position.”