"
"And what did Wenceslas think of her?" asked poor Hortense, trying to
keep calm. "He said nothing about her to me."
"I will only say one thing," said Stidmann, "and that is, that I think
her a very dangerous woman."
Hortense turned as pale as a woman after childbirth.
"So--it was at--at Madame Marneffe's that you dined--and not--not with
Chanor?" said she, "yesterday--and Wenceslas--and he----"
Stidmann, without knowing what mischief he had done, saw that he had
blundered.
The Countess did not finish her sentence; she simply fainted away. The
artist rang, and the maid came in. When Louise tried to get her
mistress into her bedroom, a serious nervous attack came on, with
violent hysterics. Stidmann, like any man who by an involuntary
indiscretion has overthrown the structure built on a husband's lie to
his wife, could not conceive that his words should produce such an
effect; he supposed that the Countess was in such delicate health that
the slightest contradiction was mischievous.
The cook presently returned to say, unfortunately in loud tones, that
her master was not in the studio. In the midst of her anguish,
Hortense heard, and the hysterical fit came on again.
"Go and fetch madame's mother," said Louise to the cook. "Quick--run!"
"If I knew where to find Steinbock, I would go and fetch him!"
exclaimed Stidmann in despair.
"He is with that woman!" cried the unhappy wife. "He was not dressed
to go to his work!"
Stidmann hurried off to Madame Marneffe's, struck by the truth of this
conclusion, due to the second-sight of passion.
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