But now, as the time for the meeting drew near, as she stood for a moment before the glass,--pretending to look at herself in order that her maid might not remark her uneasiness, she found that her courage, great as it was, hardly sufficed her.

She almost plotted some scheme of a headache, by which she might be enabled not to show herself till after dinner.

"I am so blind that I can hardly see out of my eyes," she said to the maid, actually beginning the scheme.

The woman assumed a look of painful solicitude, and declared that "Madame did not look quite her best." "I suppose I shall shake it off," said Madame Goesler; and then she descended the stairs.
The condition of Phineas Finn was almost as bad, but he had a much less protracted period of anticipation than that with which the lady was tormented.

He was sent up to dress for dinner with the knowledge that in half an hour he would find himself in the same room with Madame Goesler.