"But why didn't her mother accompany her to Italy?"
"Because the poor woman had already been attacked by the strange malady to which she is about to succumb, it seems. People say that it was a terrible disappointment to her because she could not follow her daughter to Naples, and that this disappointment has contributed not a little to her present hopeless state."
"It would seem, then, that Doctor Dupont's musical cure has proved a failure."
"What musical cure?"
"Knowing Madame de Beaumesnil's passionate love of music, the doctor, to mitigate his patient's sufferings and arouse her from her langour, ordered that soft and soothing music should be played or sung to her."
"Not a bad idea, though revived from the times of Saul and David," commented Ravil.
"Well, what was the result?"
"Madame de Beaumesnil seemed benefited at first, they say, but her malady soon regained the ascendency."
"I have heard that poor Beaumesnil's sudden death was a terrible shock to her."
"Bah!" exclaimed M. de Mornand, with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders, "she never cared a straw for Beaumesnil. She only married him for his millions of millions. Besides, as a young girl she had any number of lovers. In short," continued M. de Mornand, puffing out his cheeks with an air of supercilious dignity, "Madame de Beaumesnil is really a woman of no reputation whatever, and, in spite of the enormous fortune she will leave, no honourable man would ever be willing to marry the daughter of such a mother."