"At last," she cried, "I am going to be a countess! Oh! that Monsieur Cherami is a delightful man! And when I am a countess and have my carriage and forty thousand francs a year, which I won't lose by speculating in stocks, then father won't think that I did wrong to refuse a second time to marry Gustave; for, in this world, it seems to me that it is one's duty to think of one's self first."
When the count woke on the third day of the new treatment, he was amazed to find that he felt almost as weak as before he began to drink the precious liquid; he did not realize that the strength which it gave him was purely artificial and vanished with the spirits which it contained. He summoned his valet, bade him give him the precious bottle, drank two glasses in quick succession, and soon felt revivified.
"I will drink it all to-day!" said the count to himself, while his valet was dressing him.—"How many more glasses are there in the bottle, François?"
"I should think there were at least six, monsieur le comte, besides the two you have drunk."
"That will make eight; but I shall be as lively as a cricket."
"Doesn't monsieur think that it may excite him too much?"
"No, no! Mere herbs! they're very strengthening! Give me a glass."
"Here it is, monsieur le comte."
"Ah! it's good! I am beginning to like it much. It's an extraordinary thing, the good it does me. I feel like pirouetting, François."
"Don't do it, monsieur; it would make you dizzy."