"Enough, I tell you, my dear Marcel. Advise me, guide me; command, for I surrender. Must I not see him or speak to him?"
"No, you certainly must not, my dear countess. He must know nothing of what has happened, and Monsieur Antoine's gifts must fall into his hands without any suspicion on his part of the terms on which our uncle became tractable. Otherwise, he would be quite capable of refusing them."
"Marcel," said the countess, rising and ringing the bell, "I must leave this house instantly and never return!"
A servant appeared.
"Send for a cab," she said, "and send Camille to me."
"I shall carry nothing away," she said to Marcel. "You must pay my servants, collect my most necessary effects and send them to me."
"But where are you going?"
"To a convent, outside Paris, I don't care where, provided that nobody but you knows where I am."
Camille appeared. Julie bade her fetch her cloak, and, when she had left the room again, continued:
"You see, my friend, if I remain here a moment longer, Madame Thierry, being anxious on account of what happened at her house, will come to make inquiries, and even if I should feign before her—this evening, ah! yes, this evening Julien would wait for me in the garden, and when I failed to appear, he would not be able to refrain from coming to my window and tapping on it.—I should not have the strength to leave him in the grasp of mortal anxiety, and I could not lie to him. No, no, let us go! I hear the cab coming into the courtyard. Come, do not give me time to lose what little courage I have!"