But this was not true.  She cared very much for Giselle’s good opinion, and for Madame d’Argy’s friendship.  She suffered much in her secret heart at the thought of having given so much pain to Fred. She guessed how deep it was by the step to which it had driven him.  But there was in her secret soul something more than all the rest, it was a puerile, but delicious satisfaction in feeling her own importance, in having been able to exercise an influence over one heart which might possibly extend to that of M. de Cymier.  She thought he might be gratified by knowing that she had driven a young man to despair, if he guessed for whose sake she had been so cruel.  He knew it, of course.  Madame de Nailles took care that he should not be ignorant of it, and the pleasure he took in such a proof of his power over a young heart was not unlike that pleasure Jacqueline experienced in her coquetry—­which crushed her better feelings.  He felt proud of the sacrifice this beautiful girl had made for his sake, though he did not consider himself thereby committed to any decision, only he felt more attached to her than ever.  Ever since the day when Madame de Villegry had first introduced him at the house of Madame de Nailles, he had had great pleasure in going there.  The daughter of the house was more and more to his taste, but his liking for her was not such as to carry him beyond prudence.  “If I chose,” he would say to himself after every time he met her, “if I chose I could own that jewel.  I have only to stretch out my hand and have it given me.”  And the next morning, after going to sleep full of that pleasant thought, he would awake glad to find that he was still as free as ever, and able to carry on a flirtation with a woman of the world, which imposed no obligations upon him, and yet at the same time make love to a young girl whom he would gladly have married but for certain reports which were beginning to circulate among men of business concerning the financial position of M. de Nailles.

They said that he was withdrawing money from secure investments to repair (or to increase) considerable losses made by speculation, and that he operated recklessly on the Bourse.  These rumors had already withdrawn Marcel d’Etaples from the list of his daughter’s suitors.  The young fellow was a captain of Hussars, who had no scruple in declaring the reason of his giving up his interest in the young lady.  Gerard de Cymier, more prudent, waited and watched, thinking it would be quite time enough to go to the bottom of things when he found himself called upon to make a decision, and greatly interested meantime in the daily increase of Jacqueline’s beauty.  It was evident she cared for him.  After all, it was doing the little thing no harm to let her live on in the intoxication of vanity and hope, and to give her something to dwell upon in her innocent dreams.  Never did Gerard allow himself to overstep the line he had marked out for himself; a glance, a slight