casino.’  You will reach it in five minutes; you will step out and enter a small apartment, where you will find a good fire; you will be alone, and you will wait.’  ’For whom?  I enquired.  ’For nobody.  You need not know any more:  you may only be certain that nothing unpleasant will happen to you; trust me for that.  You will sup at the casino, and sleep, if you like, without being disturbed.  Do not ask any questions, for I cannot answer them.  Such is, my dear husband, the whole truth.  Tell me now what I could do after that speech of my friend, and after she had received my promise to do whatever she wished.  Do not distrust what I tell you, for my lips cannot utter a falsehood.  I laughed, and not expecting anything else but an agreeable adventure, I followed the lay-sister and soon found myself here.  After a tedious hour of expectation, Pierrot made his appearance.  Be quite certain that the very moment I saw you my heart knew who it was, but a minute after I felt as if the lightning had struck me when I saw you step back, for I saw clearly enough that you did not expect to find me.  Your gloomy silence frightened me, and I would never have dared to be the first in breaking it; the more so that, in spite of the feelings of my heart, I might have been mistaken.  The dress of Pierrot might conceal some other man, but certainly no one that I could have seen in this place without horror.  Recollect that for the last eight months I have been deprived of the happiness of kissing you, and now that you must be certain of my innocence, allow me to congratulate you upon knowing this casino.  You are happy, and I congratulate you with all my heart.  M——­ M——­ is, after me, the only woman worthy of your love, the only one with whom I could consent to share it.  I used to pity you, but I do so no longer, and your happiness makes me happy.  Kiss me now.”

I should have been very ungrateful, I should, even have been cruel, if I had not then folded in my arms with the warmth of true love the angel of goodness and beauty who was before me, thanks to the most wonderful effort of friendship.

After assuring her that I no longer entertained any doubt of her innocence, I told her that I thought the behaviour of her friend very ambiguous.  I said that, notwithstanding the pleasure I felt in seeing her, the trick played upon me by her friend was a very bad one, that it could not do otherwise than displease me greatly, because it was an insult to me.

“I am not of your opinion,” replied C——­ C——.

“My dear M——­ M——­ has evidently contrived, somehow or other, to discover that, before you were acquainted with her, you were my lover.  She thought very likely that you still loved me, and she imagined, for I know her well, that she could not give us a greater proof of her love than by procuring us, without forewarning us, that which two lovers fond of each other must wish for so ardently.  She wished to make us happy, and I cannot be angry with her for it.”