"Enough, sir, enough," said Bertha proudly; "since you interpret me thus I have nothing to add. I will accompany you when you please to the Princess de Hansfeld."
"And be on your guard as to what you do; at least, remember this—and I repeat it designedly to you—love may be indulgent, generous; pride, never; and as I should be pitiless towards you if you have the bad taste to conduct yourself improperly, so I will crush you, break you to atoms without remorse. So mind," he added, with lips contracted by passion, and taking Bertha rudely by the arm.
His wife very calmly disengaged herself and replied to him,—
"With any one but me, sir, you would, perhaps, be wrong in thus contrasting the attraction of danger to the attraction which love may offer. Believe me, when the respect of duty is powerless, terror is but vain."
And with these words Bertha quitted the room, leaving M. de Brévannes in a state of extreme irritation and intense anxiety.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
[CORRESPONDENCE]
Madame de Hansfeld returned extremely satisfied with her interview with De Brévannes. When she reflected on the proposition he had made of presenting Bertha to her, Paula experienced singular resentment. In the first place, knowing Arnold's love for Madame de Brévannes, she had wished to play a perfidious and wicked trick on De Brévannes, hoping at the same time to enjoy De Hansfeld's confusion when recognised by Bertha, for Paula was ignorant that Arnold had disclosed his real name and rank to Pierre Raimond.
When she told Iris of the expected introduction of Madame de Brévannes at the Hôtel Lambert, the gipsy girl exclaimed, with a bound of joy,—
"Now you have nothing more to desire; your wishes shall be realised whenever you please to give me the signal."