"Be it so!" said the prince, taking them with indifference; "the most affectionate tenderness, the most devoted love, have been unavailing with you, my generosity therefore must have been powerless. It is true," he added, with a smile of crushing contempt, "I had by a settlement assigned the larger portion of my property to you; and, after my decease, you would have inherited all—these jewels inclusive."
"Sir?"
"Only as you have appeared somewhat in a hurry to enjoy these advantages, I have found means to realise a portion of my fortune which has neutralised my previous settlement. I tell you this, in order to convince you that should I die to-morrow, your interested hopes will be frustrated. Perhaps I should have told you this earlier, and it might have spared you some rather hazardous experiments, which your ardent desire to be a widow explains, but by no means excuses," added De Hansfeld, with cutting irony.
These cruel words made a strange impression on Madame de Hansfeld, perfectly indifferent to the reproaches they comprised, and which she did not comprehend, for she did not in any way deserve them; she was only struck with their injustice and cruelty.
Had De Hansfeld died at that moment at her feet, she would have been far from regretting it, for at that instant she recollected what De Morville had written to her, "My love will be always unpropitious, since I cannot aspire to your hand."
But the princess was soon ashamed and horrified at her thought, or, rather, her atrocious wish, and replied coldly to her husband,—
"I do not desire to comprehend the sense of your words, monsieur, it is as odious as it is absurd. As to the question of interest, you know it was against my wish that you made so large a settlement on me, and it is only exceedingly natural that you should alter your mind at such an arrangement."
"As much hypocrisy in language, as audacity in the most criminal actions!" said the prince, in a low voice, and as if speaking to himself; "this it is that confounds my reason, and makes me always doubt this woman's crimes. Fortunately, at this moment she is completely unmasked, for my fatal love is utterly extinct."
Then, addressing Paula, he said aloud,—
"I come, madame, to desire you to make every hasty preparation for your departure. You must leave Paris before to-morrow evening!"