“Your family—what a joke! It seems to me you have reached full age; and then—what family? Your aunt, Madame de la Roche-Jugan?”
“Doubtless! I do not wish to offend her:”
“Ah, my dear cousin, don’t be uneasy; suppress this uneasiness; I assure you she will be delighted!”
“Why should she?”
“I have my reasons for thinking so;” and the young woman in uttering these words was seized with a fit of sardonic laughter which came near convulsion, so shaken were her nerves by the terrible tension.
Camors, to whom little by little the light fell stronger on the more obscure points of the terrible enigma proposed to him, saw the necessity of shortening a scene which had overtasked her faculties to an almost insupportable degree. He rose:
“I am compelled to leave you,” he said; “for I am not dining at home. But I will come to-morrow, if you will permit me.”
“Certainly. You authorize me to speak to the General?”
“Well, yes, for I really can see no reasonable objection.”
“Very good. I adore you!” said the Marquise. She gave him her hand, which he kissed and immediately departed.