“Oh! Surely he would give them back to me himself.”
“Suppose that he refused to do so?”
The countess dropped her head.
“The world disgusts me,” she said. “I don’t want to enter it again. I want to live alone with you, if you forgive me.”
“But you might get bored again. Besides, what would the world say if you left it so abruptly? In the spring we will travel; we will go to Italy, and all over Europe; you shall see life. But to-morrow night we must go to the Opera-ball; there is no other way to get those letters without compromising you; besides, by giving them up, Florine will prove to you her power.”
“And must I see that?” said the countess, frightened.
“To-morrow night.”
The next evening, about midnight, Nathan was walking about the foyer of the Opera with a mask on his arm, to whom he was attending in a sufficiently conjugal manner. Presently two masked women came up to him.
“You poor fool! Marie is here and is watching you,” said one of them, who was Vandenesse, disguised as a woman.
“If you choose to listen to me I will tell you secrets that Nathan is hiding from you,” said the other woman, who was the countess, to Florine.