"For the last time," said he, "I implore you to renounce this terrible, dangerous project.You see that you were mistaken - that Sauvresy suspects nothing, but loves you as well as ever."The expression of Bertha's face suddenly changed; she sat quite still, in a pensive revery.
"Don't let's talk any more of that," said she, at last."Perhaps I was mistaken.Perhaps he only had doubts - perhaps, although he has discovered something, he hopes to win me back by his goodness.
But you see - "
She stopped.Doubtless she did not wish to alarm him.
He was already much alarmed.The next day he went off to Melun without a word; being unable to bear the sight of this agony, and fearing to betray himself.But he left his address, and when she sent word that Sauvresy was always crying out for him, he hastily returned.Her letter was most imprudent and absurd, and made his hair stand on end.He had intended, on his arrival, to reproach her; but it was she who upbraided him.
"Why this flight?"
"I could not stay here - I suffered, trembled, felt as if I were dying.""What a coward you are!"
He would have replied, but she put her finger on his mouth, and pointed with her other hand to the door of the next room.
"Sh! Three doctors have been in consultation there for the past hour, and I haven't been able to hear a word of what they said.Who knows what they are about? I shall not be easy till they go away."Bertha's fears were not without foundation.When Sauvresy had his last relapse, and complained of a severe neuralgia in the face and an irresistible craving for pepper, Dr.R- had uttered a significant exclamation.It was nothing, perhaps - yet Bertha had heard it, and she thought she surprised a sudden suspicion on the doctor's part;and this now disturbed her, for she thought that it might be the subject of the consultation.The suspicion, however, if there had ever been any, quickly vanished.The symptoms entirely changed twelve hours later, and the next day the sick man felt pains quite the opposite of those which had previously distressed him.This very inconstancy of the distemper served to puzzle the doctor's conclusions.Sauvresy, in these latter days, had scarcely suffered at all, he said, and had slept well at night; but he had, at times, strange and often distressing sensations.He was evidently failing hourly; he was dying - everyone perceived it.And now Dr.R- asked for a consultation, the result of which had not been reached when Tremorel returned.
The drawing-room door at last swung open, and the calm faces of the physicians reassured the poisoner.Their conclusions were that the case was hopeless; everything had been tried and exhausted; no human resources had been neglected; the only hope was in Sauvresy's strong constitution.
Bertha, colder than marble, motionless, her eyes full of tears, seemed so full of grief on hearing this cruel decision, that all the doctors were touched.
"Is there no hope then? Oh, my God!" cried she, in agonizing tones.
Dr.R- hardly dared to attempt to comfort her; he answered her questions evasively.
"We must never despair," said he, "when the invalid is of Sauvresy's age and constitution; nature often works miracles when least expected."The doctor, however, lost no time in taking Hector apart and begging him to prepare the poor, devoted, loving young lady for the terrible blow about to ensue.
"For you see," added he, "I don't think Monsieur Sauvresy can live more than two days!"Bertha, with her ear at the keyhole, had heard the doctor's prediction; and when Hector returned from conducting the physician to the door, he found her radiant.She rushed into his arms.
"Now' cried she, "the future truly belongs to us.Only one black point obscured our horizon, and it has cleared away.It is for me to realize Doctor R-'s prediction." They dined together, as usual, in the dining-room, while one of the chambermaids remained beside the sick-bed.Bertha was full of spirits which she could scarcely control.The certainty of success and safety, the assurance of reaching the end, made her imprudently gay.She spoke aloud, even in the presence of the servants, of her approaching liberty.
During the evening she was more reckless than ever.If any of the servants should have a suspicion, or a shadow of one she might be discovered and lost.Hector constantly nudged her under the table and frowned at her, to keep her quiet; he felt his blood run cold at her conduct; all in vain.There are times when the armor of hypocrisy becomes so burdensome that one is forced, cost what it may, to throw it off if only for an instant.
While Hector was smoking his cigar, Bertha was more freely pursuing her dream.She was thinking that she could spend the period of her mourning at Valfeuillu, and Hector, for the sake of appearances, would hire a pretty little house somewhere in the suburbs.The worst of it all was that she would be forced to seem to mourn for Sauvresy, as she had pretended to love him during his lifetime.
But at last a day would come when, without scandal, she might throw off her mourning clothes, and then they would get married.Where?
At Paris or Orcival?
Hector's thoughts ran in the same channel.He, too, wished to see his friend under the ground to end his own terrors, and to submit to Bertha's terrible yoke.