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Updated: September 16, 2025
She is very unhappy. You have seen in the papers ?" "I have seen no papers since we left Turin. What has happened?" "The Prince d'Armillac has come to grief. There has been some terrible scandal about money and he has been obliged to leave France to escape arrest." "And Madame de Treymes has left her husband?" "Ah, no, poor creature: they don't leave their husbands they can't.
I know Madame de Treymes slightly I have met her at Fanny's but she never remembers the fact except when she wants me to go to one of her ventes de charite. They all remember us then; and some American women are silly enough to ruin themselves at the smart bazaars, and fancy they will get invitations in return. They say Mrs.
Madame de Treymes' first words implied a recognition of what was in his thoughts. "It is extraordinary, my receiving you here; but que voulez vous? There was no other place, and I would do more than this for our dear Fanny." Durham bowed. "It seems to me that you are also doing a great deal for me." "Perhaps you will see later that I have my reasons," she returned smiling.
It was only when they sat again in the blissful after-calm of their understanding, that he felt the pricking of an unappeased distrust. "Did Madame de Treymes give you any reason for this change of front?" he risked asking, when he found the distrust was not otherwise to be quelled. "Oh, yes: just what I've said. It was really her admiration of you of your attitude your delicacy.
Meanwhile, Madame de Treymes being engaged with a venerable Duchess in a black shawl all the older ladies present had the sloping shoulders of a generation of shawl-wearers her American visitor, left in the isolation of his unimportance, was using it as a shelter for a rapid survey of the scene. He had begun his study of Fanny de Malrive's situation without any real understanding of her fears.
Madame de Treymes made no audible response to this request, but when the door had closed on the other ladies she said, looking quietly at Durham: "I don't think that, in this house, your time will hang so heavy that you need my help in supporting it." Durham met her glance frankly. "It was not for that reason that Madame de Malrive asked you to remain with me." "Why, then?
Madame de Treymes continued to hold his eyes for a puzzled moment after he had spoken; then she broke out despairingly: "Is happiness never more to you, then, than this abstract standard of truth?" Durham reflected. "I don't know it's an instinct. There doesn't seem to be any choice." "Then I am a miserable wretch for not holding my tongue!" He shook his head sadly.
The most zealous observance of appearances could hardly forbid Durham's return for such a purpose; but it had been agreed between himself and Madame de Malrive who had once more been left alone by Madame de Treymes' return to her family that, so close to the fruition of their wishes, they would propitiate fate by a scrupulous adherence to usage, and communicate only, during his hasty visit, by a daily interchange of notes.
What had happened, as he heard from her a few hours later finding her in a tremor of frightened gladness, with her door boldly closed to all the world but himself was nothing less extraordinary than a visit from Madame de Treymes, who had come, officially delegated by the family, to announce that Monsieur de Malrive had decided not to oppose his wife's suit for divorce.
Durham met this with a tender pressure of her hand; then he said, after a pause of reflection: "I should like to see her." He hardly knew what prompted him to utter the wish, unless it were a sudden stir of compunction at the memory of his own dealings with Madame de Treymes. Had he not sacrificed the poor creature to a purely fantastic conception of conduct?
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