"
"Ah!" said the magistrate with a sigh of relief. The sigh signified:
"It's all clear--only too evident. She is determined to save him, at the
risk even of compromising her reputation. Poor girl! But has this idea
only just occurred to her?"
The "Ah!" was interpreted very differently by Mademoiselle d'Arlange.
She thought that M. Daburon was astonished at her consenting to receive
Albert.
"Your surprise is an insult, sir," said she.
"Mademoiselle!"
"A daughter of my family, sir, may receive her betrothed without danger
of anything occurring for which she would have to blush."
She spoke thus, and at the same time was red with shame, grief, and
anger. She began to hate M. Daburon.
"I had no such insulting thought as you imagine, mademoiselle," said the
magistrate. "I was only wondering why M. de Commarin went secretly to
your house, when his approaching marriage gave him the right to present
himself openly at all hours. I still wonder, how, on such a visit, he
could get his clothes in the condition in which we found them."
"That is to say, sir," replied Claire bitterly, "that you doubt my
word!"
"The circumstances are such, mademoiselle,--"
"You accuse me, then, of falsehood, sir.
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