A loud knock at the outer door spared Mademoiselle Gontier the trouble of repelling her ridiculous adorer, who promptly scrambled to his feet at the sound.

“A visitor!” he murmured, turning pale.  “Decidedly, I have no luck—­”

“Monsieur le Marquis de Prerolles is in the drawing-room,” a domestic announced.

“Beg him to wait,” said Eugenie, reassured by this visit, which was earlier than the usual hour.  “You see that you are badly informed, Monsieur Desvanneaux,” she added.

“For heaven’s sake, spare me this embarrassing meeting!” said the informer, whose complexion had become livid.

“I understand.  You fear a challenge?”

“Oh, no, not that!  My religious principles would forbid me to fight a duel.  But the General would not fail to rally me before my wife regarding my presence here, and Madame Desvanneaux would be pitiless.”

“Own, however, that you richly deserve a lesson, Lovelace that you are!  But I will take pity on you,” said Eugenie, opening a door at the end of the room.  “The servants’ stairway is at the end of that corridor.  You know the way!” she added, laughing.

“I am beginning to know it, dear Mademoiselle!” said the pitiful beguiler, slipping through the doorway on tiptoe.

CHAPTER XIX

BROKEN TIES

After picking up a chair which, in his alarm, the fugitive had overturned in his flight, Mademoiselle Gontier herself opened the door leading to the drawing-room.

“Come in, Henri!” said she, lifting the portiere.

“Do I disturb you?” the General inquired, entering the library.

“Never!  You know that well!  But how gravely you asked the question!”

“For the reason that I wish to speak to you about serious matters, my dear Eugenie.”

The image of Zibeline passed before the eyes of the actress.  That which Desvanneaux had revealed, in accusing the girl of debauchery, now appeared plausible to her, if considered in another way.

“You are about to marry!” she exclaimed.

They were the same words pronounced by Fanny Dorville in similar circumstances.

“Never!  You know that well enough!” he replied, in his turn.

“Speak, then!” said she, sinking upon a chair and motioning him to a seat before her.

He obeyed, and sitting so far forward upon his chair that his knees touched her skirt, he took both her hands in his own, and said gently: 

“You know how much I love you, and how much I esteem you.  You know, too, the story of my life:  my past follies, and also the honorable career I have run in order to atone for them morally, for in a material sense they are irreparable—­according to my ideas, at least.  This career has been fortunate.  I have reached the highest rank that a soldier can attain to-day.  But my rapid promotion, however justifiable it may be, has none the less awakened jealousy.  The nature of my services being above all possibility of suspicion, calumny has sought another quarter at which to strike, and at this moment it is my delicacy which is impugned.”