That was before my marriage. This
passage leads to my apartment. Alas! it testifies to the cunning
artifices to which Monsieur de T----- has resorted in protecting his
love for me."
"How pleasant it would be," I said to her, keenly excited by the
curiosity she had roused in me, "to take vengeance in this spot for
the insults which your charms have suffered, and to seek to make
restitution for the pleasures of which you have been robbed."
She doubtless thought this remark in good taste, but she said: "You
promised to be good!"
* * * * *
I threw a veil over the follies which every age will pardon to youth,
on the ground of so many balked desires and bitter memories. In the
morning, scarcely raising her liquid eyes, Madame de T-----, fairer
than ever, said to me:
"Now will you ever love the countess as much as you do me?"
I was about to answer when her maid, her confidante, appeared saying:
"You must go. It is broad daylight, eleven o'clock, and the chateau is
already awake."
All had vanished like a dream! I found myself wandering through the
corridors before I had recovered my senses. How could I regain my
apartment, not knowing where it was? Any mistake might bring about an
exposure. I resolved on a morning walk.
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