She smoothed the paper out once more, and once more read the even characters, and looked long at the signature, and back again to the writing.
"This lady, who, I confess, takes no interest whatever in me...." "How could he say it!" she exclaimed aloud.

"Oh, if I knew who she was!" With an impatient movement she thrust the letter among the coals, and watched the fire curl it and burn it, from white to brown and from brown to black, till it was all gone.

Then she rose to her feet and left the room.
Her husband certainly did not guess that the Duchessa d'Astrardente had spent so eventful a morning; and if any one had told him that his wife had been through a dozen stages of emotion, he would have laughed, and would have told his informant that Corona was not of the sort who experience violent passions.

That evening they went to the opera together, and the old man was in an unusually cheerful humour.

A new coat had just arrived from Paris, and the padding had attained a higher degree of scientific perfection than heretofore.