No more agents or notaries shall be admitted
into this house henceforth. Now I must hasten!"
The count certainly felt a satisfaction in knowing her to be rich,
for he could much more easily get rid of a millionnaire widow than
of a poor penniless woman. Sauvresy's conduct thus calmed many
sharp anxieties. Her restless gayety, however, her confident
security, seemed monstrous to Hector. He would have wished for
more solemnity in the execution of the crime; he thought that he
ought at least to calm Bertha's delirium.
"You will think more than once of Sauvresy," said he, in a graver
tone.
She answered with a "prrr," and added vivaciously:
"Of him? when and why? Oh, his memory will not weigh on me very
heavily. I trust that we shall be able to live still at Valfeuillu,
for the place pleases me; but we must also have a house at Paris--
or we will buy yours back again. What happiness, Hector!"
The mere prospect of this anticipated felicity so shocked Hector,
that his better self for the moment got the mastery; he essayed to
move Bertha.
"For the last time," said he, "I implore you to renounce this
terrible, dangerous project.
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