She found her preparing for the departure. At the first glance to the trunks that the maids were packing, she could see the absence was meant to be a long one.
"So," she said, after leading her daughter to another room, "you are going to Paris? Why did you say nothing to me of this journey?"
"I do not start until to-morrow. I was coming to say good-bye this evening."
"And this journey is taken on account of your health?"
"Undoubtedly."
"You can imagine that I don't believe that?"
"Then it would be useless to question me, as, if what you suppose be true, I can not, and ought not, to confess it to you."
What the princess could not and would not tell her mother was that she was enceinte by Paul Meyrin, and that this, more even than her love for him, compelled her to leave her husband at once.
"Do you imagine that your husband will always be ignorant of what is going on?" said Mme. Podoi, after a moment's silence.
"I don't know what you mean," said Lise, shrugging her shoulders.