"You are, then, the Marquis de Létorière, a party in a lawsuit?"
"Yes, madame la conseillère". . .
"In a lawsuit against the Dukes of Brunswick and Brandenbourg?"
"Yes, madame la conseillère."
Hearing these answers, almost childlike in simplicity, and stammered out timidly, Martha, reassured, rose and took two steps towards the door, saying to the Marquis:
"Come nearer, sir!" . . .
Létorière, for the first time, raised his great tender and melancholy eyes, looked earnestly at the lady, and then lowered them under his long eyelashes.
In her whole life Martha had never encountered a look at once so sweet and so seductive; she was moved, and said to the Marquis, with a sort of quick impatience:
"Come nearer, sir! . . . one would say that I frightened you." . . .
"Oh, no, madame la conseillère; you do not frighten me. . . . 'For the virtuous woman is an excellent gift, and she shall be given to man for his good deeds,' says the Scripture."