"I see no harm in the conversation; but I am horribly bored when you talk to anybody else for long. I am sorry that you don't feel the same way."
"Oh! what childishness! As if I were not always there!—How my head does ache! I shall have a sick headache to-morrow, I am sure."
"You will go to look at that apartment, won't you?"
"Yes, if my head doesn't ache; but if it does, I certainly shall not stir from my bed."
They arrived at Fanny's door, and the future husband and wife parted much more coldly than usual.
The next morning, the young widow gave these orders to her servant:
"If Monsieur le Comte de la Bérinière calls, you will admit him at once. If Monsieur Gustave comes, you will tell him that I have a sick headache, that I am asleep; and you will not let him in on any pretext. Do you understand?"
Fanny took the greatest pains with her hair, her dress, and every part of her toilet; she omitted nothing that was adapted to captivate, to dazzle, to seduce.
At one o'clock, Monsieur de la Bérinière was ushered into the pretty creature's boudoir, where she awaited him, seated in a graceful attitude on a sofa, and motioned him to a seat by her side.