When the Marquise proposed to Camors this visit to Vichy, he only shrugged his shoulders without reply.

A few days after, Madame de Campvallon on entering the stable one morning, saw Medjid, the favorite mare of Camors, white with foam, panting and exhausted.  The groom explained, with some awkwardness, the condition of the animal, by a ride the Count had taken that morning.  The Marquise had recourse to Daniel, of whom she made a confidant, and having questioned him, drew out the acknowledgment that for some time his master had been in the habit of going out in the evening and not returning until morning.  Daniel was in despair with these nightly wanderings, which he said greatly fatigued his master.  He ended by confessing to Madame de Campvallon the goal of his excursions.

The Comtesse de Camors, yielding to considerations the details of which would not be interesting, had continued to live at Reuilly since her husband had abandoned her.  Reuilly was distant twelve leagues from Campvallon, which could be made shorter by a crosscut.  M. de Camors did not hesitate to pass over this distance twice in the same night, to give himself the emotion of breathing for a few minutes the same air with his wife and child.

Daniel had accompanied him two or three times, but the Count generally went alone.  He left his horse in the wood, and approached as near as he could without risking discovery; and, hiding himself like a malefactor behind the shadows of the trees, he watched the windows, the lights, the house, the least signs of those dear beings, from whom an eternal abyss had divided him.

The Marquise, half frightened, half irritated, by an oddity which seemed to border on madness, pretended to be ignorant of it.  But these two spirits were too accustomed to each other, day by day, to be able to hide anything.  He knew she was aware of his weakness, and seemed no longer to care to make a mystery of it.

One evening in the month of July, he left on horseback in the afternoon, and did not return for dinner.  He arrived at the woods of Reuilly at the close of the day, as he had premeditated.  He entered the garden with his usual precaution, and, thanks to his knowledge of the habits of the household, he could approach, without being noticed, the pavilion where the Countess’s chamber was situated, and which was also that of his son.  This chamber, by a particular arrangement of the house, was elevated at the side of the court by the height of an entresol, but was level with the garden.  One of the windows was open, owing to the heat of the evening.  Camors hid himself behind the shutters, which were half closed, and gazed eagerly into the chamber.

He had not seen for two years either his wife, his child, or Madame de Tecle.  He now saw all three there.  Madame de Tecle was working near the chimney.  Her face was unchanged.  She had the same youthful look, but her hair was as white, as snow.  Madame de Camors was sitting on a couch nearly in front of the window and undressing her son, at the same time talking to and caressing him.