First Part Chapter 36

THE VICOMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE TO THE BARONNE DE MACUMER

Dear,--no words can express the astonishment of all our party when, at
luncheon, we were told that you had both gone, and, above all, when
the postilion who took you to Marseilles handed me your mad letter.

Why, naughty child, it was of your happiness, and nothing else, that
made the theme of those talks below the rock, on the "Louise" seat,
and you had not the faintest justification for objecting to them.
Ingrata! My sentence on you is that you return here at my first
summons. In that horrid letter, scribbled on the inn paper, you did
not tell me what would be your next stopping place; so I must address
this to Chantepleurs.

Listen to me, dear sister of my heart. Know first, that my mind is set
on your happiness. Your husband, dear Louise, commands respect, not
only by his natural gravity and dignified expression, but also because
he somehow impresses one with the splendid power revealed in his
piquant plainness and in the fire of his velvet eyes; and you will
understand that it was some little time before I could meet him on
those easy terms which are almost necessary for intimate conversation.

Further, this man has been Prime Minister, and he idolizes you; whence
it follows that he must be a profound dissembler. To fish up secrets,
therefore, from the rocky caverns of this diplomatic soul is a work
demanding a skilful hand no less than a ready brain. Nevertheless, I
succeeded at last, without rousing my victim's suspicions, in
discovering many things of which you, my pet, have no conception.