'--'What a shameless betrayal! It was
deliberately planned!'--'No, only a rational issue.'--'Good-bye,
Monsieur de Marsay,' said she; 'you have deceived me horribly.'--
'Surely,' I replied, taking up a submissive attitude, 'Madame la
Duchesse will not remember Charlotte's grievances?'--'Certainly,' she
answered bitterly.--'Then, in fact, you hate me?'--She bowed, and I
said to myself, 'There is something still left!'
"The feeling she had when I parted from her allowed her to believe
that she still had something to avenge. Well, my friends, I have
carefully studied the lives of men who have had great success with
women, but I do not believe that the Marechal de Richelieu, or Lauzun,
or Louis de Valois ever effected a more judicious retreat at the first
attempt. As to my mind and heart, they were cast in a mould then and
there, once for all, and the power of control I thus acquired over the
thoughtless impulses which make us commit so many follies gained me
the admirable presence of mind you all know."
"How deeply I pity the second!" exclaimed the Baronne de Nucingen.
A scarcely perceptible smile on de Marsay's pale lips made Delphine de
Nucingen color.
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