It is M——­ M——­, I said to myself, who has played that trick upon me, but how has she contrived to know that I am the lover of C——­ C——?  Has C——­ C——­ betrayed my secret?  But if she has betrayed it, how could M——­ M——­ deprive herself of the pleasure of seeing me, and consent to her place being taken by her friend and rival?  That cannot be a mark of kind compliance, for a woman never carries it to such an extreme.  I see in it only a mark of contempt—­a gratuitous insult.

My self-love tried hard to imagine some reason likely to disprove the possibility of that contempt, but in vain.  Absorbed in that dark discontent, I believed myself wantonly trifled with, deceived, despised, and I spent half an hour silent and gloomy, staring at C——­ C——­, who scarcely dared to breathe, perplexed, confused, and not knowing in whose presence she was, for she could only know me as the Pierrot whom she had seen at the ball.

Deeply in love with M——­ M——­, and having come to the casino only for her, I did not feel disposed to accept the exchange, although I was very far from despising C——­ C——­, whose charms were as great, at least, as those of M——­ M——.  I loved her tenderly, I adored her, but at that moment it was not her whom I wanted, because at first her presence had struck me as a mystification.  It seemed to me that if I celebrated the return of C——­ C——­ in an amorous manner, I would fail in what I owed to myself, and I thought that I was bound in honour not to lend myself to the imposition.  Besides, without exactly realizing that feeling, I was not sorry to have it in my power to reproach M——­ M——­ with an indifference very strange in a woman in love, and I wanted to act in such a manner that she should not be able to say that she had procured me a pleasure.  I must add that I suspected M——­ M——­ to be hiding in the secret closet, perhaps with her friend.

I had to take a decision, for I could not pass the whole night in my costume of Pierrot, and without speaking.  At first I thought of going away, the more so that both C——­ C——­ and her friend could not be certain that I and Pierrot were the same individual, but I soon abandoned the idea with horror, thinking of the deep sorrow which would fill the loving soul of C——­ C——­ if she ever heard I was the Pierrot.  I almost fancied that she knew it already, and I shared the grief which she evidently would feel in that case.  I had seduced her.  I had given her the right to call me her husband.  These thoughts broke my heart.

If M——­ M——­ is in the closet, said I to myself, she will shew herself in good time.  With that idea, I took off the gauze which covered my features.  My lovely C——­ C——­ gave a deep sigh, and said: 

“I breathe again! it could not be anyone but you, my heart felt it.  You seemed surprised when you saw me, dearest; did you not know that I was waiting for you?”

“I had not the faintest idea of it.”

“If you are angry, I regret it deeply, but I am innocent.”