APPROACHING DANGER

“I could not act differently,” repeated Dorsenne on the evening of that eventful day.  He had given his entire afternoon to caring for Gorka.  He made him lunch.  He made him lie down.  He watched him.  He took him in a closed carriage to Portonaccio, the first stopping-place on the Florence line.  Indeed, he made every effort not to leave alone for a moment the man whose frenzy he had rather suspended than appeased, at the price, alas, of his own peace of mind!  For, once left alone, in solitude and in the apartments on the Place de la Trinite, where twenty details testified to the visit of Gorka, the weight of the perjured word of honor became a heavy load to the novelist, so much the more heavy when he discovered the calculating plan followed by Boleslas.  His tardy penetration permitted him to review the general outline of their conversation.  He perceived that not one of his interlocutor’s sentences, not even the most agitated, had been uttered at random.  From reply to reply, from confidence to confidence, he, Dorsenne, had become involved in the dilemma without being able to foresee or to avoid it; he would either have had to accuse a woman or to lie with one of those lies which a manly conscience does not easily pardon.  He did not forgive himself for it.

“It is so much worse,” said he to himself, “as it will prevent nothing.  A person vile enough to pen anonymous letters will not stop there.  She will find the means of again unchaining the madman....  But who wrote those letters?  Gorka may have forged them in order to have an opportunity to ask me the question he did....  And yet, no....  There are two indisputable facts—­his state of jealousy and his extraordinary return.  Both would lead one to suppose a third, a warning.  But given by whom?....  He told me of twelve anonymous letters....  Let us assume that he received one or two....  But who is the author of those?”

The immediate development of the drama in which Julien found himself involved was embodied in the answer to the question.  It was not easy to formulate.  The Italians have a proverb of singular depth which the novelist recalled at that moment.  He had laughed a great deal when he heard sententious Egiste Brancadori repeat it.  He repeated it to himself, and he understood its meaning.  ’Chi non sa fingersi amico, non sa essere nemico.  “He who does not know how to disguise himself as a friend, does not know how to be an enemy.”  In the little corner of society in which Countess Steno, the Gorkas and Lincoln Maitland moved, who was hypocritical and spiteful enough to practise that counsel?