"How shall I thank you, count?" cried Countess Frankenstein, with great emotion.
"Thank God, countess," he replied. "But," he added in the easy tone of general conversation, "I reckon upon your discretion, you must not betray me to the doctors."
He gave instructions about the further treatment of the wound, and a remedy to be used in his absence, he again administered a medicine, and left the house promising to return in a few hours.
With rapid footsteps he hastened to Madame Balzer's house; his face assumed a grave and severe expression as he ascended the steps leading to the young lady's apartments.
In the salon he found the Abbé Rosti awaiting him. The young priest sat opposite the chaise-longue of the mistress of the house, who was conversing gaily with him, dressed in a charming pale blue morning toilette.
The abbé rose as the count entered, and the young lady welcomed him with a graceful smile as she offered him her hand.
"We have expected you for some time," she said. "The poor abbé has been wearied with his efforts to continue a conversation with me," she added in a roguish tone. "Where were you?"
"I have been preventing the completion of a great crime," replied the count gloomily, fixing his eyes firmly upon the lady's face.
She trembled involuntarily beneath his gaze.
"A crime?" she asked, "and where was it committed?"