Vain hope! He did not come; he did not even condescend to give one sign of life.
"Ah! doubtless he is with her," she said to Aunt Medea.

"He is on his knees before that miserable Marie-Anne--his mistress." For she had finished by believing--as is not unfrequently the case--the very calumnies which she herself had invented.
In this extremity she decided to make her father her confidant; and she wrote him a note announcing her coming.
She wished her father to compel Lacheneur to leave the country.

This would be an easy matter for him, since he was armed with discretionary authority at an epoch when lukewarm devotion afforded an abundant excuse for sending a man into exile.
Fully decided upon this plan, Blanche became calmer on leaving the chateau; and her hopes overflowed in incoherent phrases, to which poor Aunt Medea listened with her accustomed resignation.
"At last I shall be rid of this shameless creature!" she exclaimed.

"We will see if he has the audacity to follow her! Will he follow her?
Oh, no; he dare not!" When the carriage passed through the village of Sairmeuse, Mlle.

Blanche noticed an unwonted animation.
There were lights in every house, the saloons seemed full of drinkers, and groups of people were standing upon the public square and upon the doorsteps.
But what did this matter to Mlle.