But that a stranger--above all, a man who aspired, or pretended to aspire, to her hand--should attempt to usurp the same authority of speech was beyond all human endurance.

She felt sure that her father's anger would all be turned against Benoni when he heard her story.
As for what her tormentor had said of Nino, she could have killed him for saying it, but she knew that it was a lie; for she loved Nino with all her heart, and no one can love wholly without trusting wholly.
Therefore she put away the evil suggestion from herself, and loaded all its burden of treachery upon Benoni.
How long she sat by the window, compelling her strained thoughts into order, no one can tell.

It might have been an hour, or more, for she had lost the account of the hours.

She was roused by a knock at the door of her sitting-room, and at her bidding the man entered who, for the trifling consideration of about a thousand francs, first and last made communication possible between Hedwig and myself.
This man's name is Temistocle,--Themistocles, no less.

All servants are Themistocles, or Orestes, or Joseph, just as all gardeners are called Antonio.