"I will not rekindle my passion for Juliette," replied Leoni, angrily, "but I will strike you if you mention her name again."
"We must make him drink some tea," said the viscount, "he's dead drunk."
"Come, come, Leoni," cried the marquis, grasping his arm, "you treat us horribly to-night. What's the matter with you, in God's name? Are we no longer friends? do you doubt us? Speak."
"No, I don't doubt you," said Leoni; "you have given me back as much as I took from you. I know what you are worth; good and bad, I judge you all, without prejudice or prepossession."
"Ah! I should like to hear your judgment!" said the viscount, between his teeth.
"Come, come! more punch! more punch!" cried the other guests. "There's no possibility of any more fun unless we drink Chalm and Leoni under the table. They have reached the stage of nervous spasms; let's put them in a trance."
"Yes, my friends, my very dear friends!" cried Leoni, "punch! friendship! life—a jolly life! The deuce take the cards! they are what make me ugly. Here's to drunkenness! Here's to the ladies! Here's to sloth, tobacco, music and money! Here's to the young maids and old countesses! Here's to the devil! Here's to love! Here's to all that makes one live! Everything is good when one is well enough constituted to make the most of it and enjoy it."
They all rose, shouting a drinking song. I fled; I ran upstairs with the frenzy of one who thinks herself pursued, and fell in a swoon on my bedroom floor.
[XII]
The next morning they found me lying on the floor, as stiff and cold as a corpse; I had brain fever. I believe that Leoni was attentive to me; it seemed to me that I saw him frequently at my bedside, but I had only a vague memory of it. After three days I was out of danger. Then Leoni came from time to time to inquire for me, and to pass part of the afternoon with me. He left the palace every evening at six o'clock, and did not return until next morning. That fact I learned later.