"It is now seven o'clock," she said; "he must have arrived; it is the hour for signing his papers." With a feverish impatience she rose and walked towards the mirror, in which she smiled with a resolute smile of devotedness; she touched the spring and drew out the handle of the bell.

Then, as if exhausted beforehand by the struggle she had just undergone, she threw herself on her knees, in utter abandonment, before a large couch, in which she buried her face in her trembling hands.

Ten minutes afterwards she heard the spring of the door sound.

The door moved upon invisible hinges, and Fouquet appeared.
He looked pale, and seemed bowed down by the weight of some bitter reflection.

He did not hurry, but simply came at the summons.