"I embroidered it on your account expressly. It contains the amount for which the Belleville property was given as security."
Frederick thanked her for letting him have the money, while chiding her at the same time for having given herself any trouble about it.
"No! 'tis not for this I came! I was determined to pay you this visit—then I would go back there again."
And she spoke about the place where they had taken up their abode.
It was a low-built house of only one story; and there was a garden attached to it full of huge box-trees, and a double avenue of chestnut-trees, reaching up to the top of the hill, from which there was a view of the sea.
"I go there and sit down on a bench, which I have called 'Frederick's bench.'"
Then she proceeded to fix her gaze on the furniture, the objects of virtù, the pictures, with eager intentness, so that she might be able to carry away the impressions of them in her memory. The Maréchale's portrait was half-hidden behind a curtain. But the gilding and the white spaces of the picture, which showed their outlines through the midst of the surrounding darkness, attracted her attention.
"It seems to me I knew that woman?"
"Impossible!" said Frederick. "It is an old Italian painting."
She confessed that she would like to take a walk through the streets on his arm.