“Ah, ah!  Brian, where is our bargain?  Was it not understood that we would have nothing to do with the count’s private affairs?”

Thus every one took up at once his assigned part.  The countess advocated forbearance; Mrs. Brian advised discipline; and Sir Thorn was in favor of silent impartiality.

Besides, they easily succeeded in calming the count.  But, after such a scene, the wedding breakfast could not be very merry.  The guests, who had heard nearly all, exchanged strange looks with each other.

“The count’s daughter,” they thought, “and a lover?  That can hardly be!”

In vain did the count try to look indifferent; in vain did the young countess display all her rare gifts.  Everybody was embarrassed; nobody could summon up a smile; and every five minutes the conversation gave out.  At half-past four o’clock, the last guest had escaped, and the count remained alone with his new family.  It was growing dark, and they were bringing in the lamps, when the rolling of carriage-wheels was heard on the sand in the court-yard.  The count rose, turning pale.

“Here she comes!” he said.  “Here is my daughter!”

It was Henrietta.

How could a young girl, usually so reserved, and naturally so timid, make up her mind to cause such scandal?  Because the most timid people are precisely the boldest on certain occasions.  Forced to abandon their nature, they do not reason, and do not calculate, and, losing all self-possession, rush blindly into danger, impelled by a kind of madness resembling that of sheep when they knock their heads against the walls of their stable.

Now, for nearly a fortnight, the count’s daughter had been upset by so many and so violent emotions, that she was no longer herself.  The insults which her father heaped upon her when he surprised her with Daniel had unsettled her mind completely.

For Count Ville-Handry, acting under a kind of overexcitement, had that day lost all self-control, and forgot himself so far as to treat his daughter as no gentleman would have treated his child while in his senses, and that in the presence of his servants!

And then, what tortures she had had to endure in the week that followed!  She had declared that she would not be present at the reading of the marriage-contract, nor at the ceremonies of the civil marriage, nor at church; and her father had tried to make her change her intentions.  Hence every day a new lamentable scene, as the decisive moment drew nearer.

If the count had at least used a little discretion, if he had tried the powers of persuasion, or sought to touch his daughter’s heart by speaking to her of herself, of her future, of her happiness, of her peace!

But no!  He never came to her room without a new insult, thinking of nothing, as he acknowledged himself, but of sparing Miss Brandon’s feelings, and of saving her all annoyance.  The consequence was, that his threats, so far from moving Henrietta, had only served to strengthen her in her determination.