He confusedly divined the origin, and understood that this distrust, envenomed by remembrance of the past, was incurable.

The sentiment of the irreparable, of revolted pride, indignation, and even injustice, had shown him but one refuge, and it was this to which he had fled.

The Comtesse de Camors and Madame de Tecle learned only through their servants and the public of the removal of the Count to a country-house he had rented near the Chateau Campvallon.  After writing ten letters—­all of which he had burned—­he had decided to maintain an absolute silence.  They sometimes trembled at the thought he might take away his son.  He thought of it; but it was a kind of vengeance that he disdained.

This move, which publicly proclaimed the relations existing between M. de Camors and the Marquise, made a sensation in the Parisian world, where it was soon known.  It revived again the strange recollections and rumors that all remembered.  Camors heard of them, but despised them.

His pride, which was then exasperated by a savage irritation, was gratified at defying public opinion, which had been so easily duped before.  He knew there was no situation one could not impose upon the world providing one had wealth and audacity.  From this day he resumed energetically the love of his life, his habits, his labors, and his thoughts for the future.  Madame de Campvallon was the confidante of all his projects, and added her own care to them; and both occupied themselves in organizing in advance their mutual existence, hereafter blended forever.  The personal fortune of M. de Camors, united to that of the Marquise, left no limits to the fancies which their imagination could devise.  They arranged to live separately at Paris, though the Marquise’s salon should be common to both; but their double influence would shine at the same time, and they would be the social centre of a sovereign influence.  The Marquise would reign by the splendor of her person over the society of letters, art, and politics.  Camors would there find the means of action which could not fail to accomplish the high destiny to which his talent and his ambition called him.

This was the life that had appeared to them in the origin of their liaison as a sort of ideal of human happiness—­that of two superior beings, who proudly shared, above the masses, all the pleasures of earth, the intoxication of passion, the enjoyment of intellectual strength, the satisfaction of pride, and the emotions of power.  The eclat of such a life would constitute the vengeance of Camors, and force to repent bitterly those who had dared to misunderstand him.  The recent mourning of the Marquise commanded them, notwithstanding, to adjourn the realization of their dream, if they did not wish to wound the conscience of the public.  They felt it, and resolved to travel for a few months before settling in Paris.  The time that passed in their preparations for the future, and in arrangements for this voyage, was to