"But, my love, if it annoys you——"
"Oh! not in the least; take your walk; I have no objection."
So the husband took his evening walk, returned in excellent spirits, and again every sign of impatience had vanished.
"My husband is carrying on some intrigue: he loves another, and cannot live without seeing her," said poor Nathalie to herself. "This is the secret of his strange conduct, of his ill-humour, and of his walks. I am very, very wretched; and the more so that when he is with me he is all kindness, all attention! I know not how I can tell him that he is a monster, a traitor! But tell him I must, or my heart will burst! Yet if I could but get some undeniable proof of his faithlessness. Oh! yes, I will have some proof." And with a swelling heart, and eyes full of tears, she rushed into her uncle's room, crying that "she was the most miserable woman alive!"
"What is the matter?" said the old gentleman, burying himself in his arm-chair. "What has happened?"
"Every day after dinner," answered his niece, sobbing, "my husband goes out to walk, as he did in the country, and stays away two hours. When he returns, he is always cheerful and gay, gives me a thousand little marks of his attention, and swears that he adores me as he did the day of our marriage. Oh! my good uncle, I can bear it no longer!—You must see that this is all treachery and deceit. Armand is playing me false."
"He plays less with me at tric-trac," was the answer of the imperturbable uncle; "but still——"
"My dear uncle, if you do not help me to discover this mystery, I shall die of grief—I shall commit some rash act—I shall get separated from my husband. Oh! my good uncle, you who are so kind, so ready to oblige, do render me this service,—do find out where my husband goes every evening."
"There can be no doubt about my readiness to oblige, seeing that it has been the business of my life; but really I do not know how I can serve you."
"Again I repeat, that, if this mystery is not cleared up, you will lose your niece."