"Ah! the old fox! there's no danger that he would tell you what interested you most."
"Then do you tell me, quickly, Cherami."
"Your former passion, that little woman you loved so dearly——"
"Fanny! Great God! is she dead?"
"No, no! she's not dead; she's in bewitching health, she's just as pretty as ever, and more than that—she's a widow."
"A widow! Great heaven! can it be possible?"
"It's more than possible, it's so. Her husband speculated in stocks, and ruined himself; then, crac! a pistol-shot—you understand."
"Oh! what a calamity! Why, it's perfectly ghastly; how long ago was it?"
"Almost immediately after you went away."
"Poor Fanny! she expected to find her happiness in that marriage; how she must have grieved! how bitterly she must have wept!"