"I don't know what you mean."
"Oh! mon Dieu! I know that the persecution by your creditors has lasted long enough for you to have become used to it, but it seems that the time came when you were within an ace of losing everything. They say that you obtained another respite, but with much difficulty, and with the certainty that it was merely falling back so as to jump higher. You told Madame Desmorges that, didn't you?"
"Yes, it is true. I am only here now pending a final settlement."
"But you will save something?"
"I have no desire to save anything that came from Monsieur d'Estrelle. It is my duty and my purpose to give up everything."
"Oh! in that case I see why you are so pale and so changed! I had understood that you displayed wonderful resignation, but that you were sick with anxiety. Now, my dear, you make a mistake in rejecting the consolations of your friends. It is a noble rôle that you are playing, but it will kill you! If I were in your place I would shriek and complain! That would not remedy anything, but it would relieve me. And then people would talk about it; society would be interested in me. It is always a comfort to attract attention; whereas you allow yourself to be buried alive without saying a word, and society, which is supremely selfish, forgets you. They were talking about you last night at the Duchesse de B——'s. 'That poor Madame d'Estrelle,' they said, 'you know she is really ruined? She won't have enough to hire a cab in which to pay her visits.'—'What!' said the Marquis de S——, 'we shall see such a pretty woman as she is splashed with mud like a spaniel! Impossible! it's sickening. Is she very miserable over it?'—'Why, no,' Madame Desmorges replied. 'She says that she will get along. She is an astonishing creature.' Thereupon they began to talk about something else. The moment that you show that you are brave, no one thinks of pitying you, especially as it's so convenient to think of no one but oneself."
Julie contented herself with a smile.
"You have a smile that frightens me!" continued the baroness. "Do you know, my dear, I believe you are very ill? Oh! I don't believe in sparing people. If you do that, a person may neglect herself and die, or else drag along in misery and become ugly; and that is even worse than dying. Take care of yourself, Julie, don't abuse your health as you are doing. Your great courage won't carry you as far as you think, I tell you! Everyone knows that it is not possible to lose everything without a regret. Look you, I propose to tell you again, even though I make you angry, that you did very wrong not to marry that rich old fellow, and perhaps it is not too late to change your mind. No one would blame you now; when a woman no longer has anything——"
"Are you entrusted with new proposals from him?" queried Julie, with some bitterness.
"No, I haven't seen him since the day you and I fell out because of him. He has made several attempts to surprise me, but I had barricaded myself against his visits. But I don't say this to turn you against him. If he comes again, don't turn him away, and, if he marries you, be very sure that I will take it on myself to receive him on your account."