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It is thus intelligible that Monsieur Crevel should have spoken to Hulot about Madame Marneffe, as knowing what was a secret to the rest of the world; for, as Monsieur Marneffe was away, no one but Lisbeth Fischer, besides the Baron and Valerie, was initiated into the mystery.
"She says little but to the purpose," said Carabine, in a low tone to Madame Nourrisson. "I am going mad!" cried the Brazilian, in a husky voice, dropping on to a sofa. "I shall die of this! But I must see, for it is impossible! A lithographed note! What is to assure me that it is not a forgery? Baron Hulot was in love with Valerie?" said he, recalling Josepha's harangue.
Hulot, imperturbable and with an eye to everything, presently remarked among the Chouans a man who, like himself, was evidently surrounded by picked men, and was therefore, no doubt, the leader of the attacking party.
I meant to have left Celestine forty thousand francs a year; but Hulot has just behaved in a way to alienate my affection for ever." "Give me ten minutes, Pere Crevel; wait for me in your carriage at the gate. I will make some excuse for going out." "Very well all right."
When Hulot went through his anteroom, full of visitors, he saw Marneffe's colorless face in a corner, and sent for him before any one else. "What do you want of me, my dear fellow?" said the Baron, disguising his anxiety.
"You will still be handsome ten years hence," Crevel went on, with his arms folded; "be kind to me, and Mademoiselle Hulot will marry. Hulot has given me the right, as I have explained to you, to put the matter crudely, and he will not be angry. In three years I have saved the interest on my capital, for my dissipations have been restricted.
He gave such a look at Madame Hulot as Tartuffe casts at Elmire when a provincial actor plays the part and thinks it necessary to emphasize its meaning at Poitiers, or at Coutances.
"But in such cases religion is impotent to subdue nature, and the most piously trained girls lose their head! Get up, pray, monsieur; do you not understand that everything is final between us? that I look upon you with horror? that you have crushed a mother's last hopes " "But if I were to restore them," asked he. Madame Hulot looked at Crevel with a frenzied expression that really touched him.
But the Baron was too much upset to answer his own question. Beauty is the greatest of human gifts for power. Every power that has no counterpoise, no autocratic control, leads to abuses and folly. Despotism is the madness of power; in women the despot is caprice. "You have nothing to complain of, my good friend; you have a beautiful wife, and she is virtuous." "I deserve my fate," said Hulot.
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