do? Had he come home? Despotic, passionate, ready for any violence as he was, what was he meditating, what had he made up his mind to do? There was no

nt there were two knocks at the door, and the bu

"Yes, Madame la Comtesse;

at all the children would be there, and she took nothing except a smelling bottle. He rose somewhat ceremoniously from his chair. They exchanged a slight bow, and sat down. The three boys, with their tu

the Count scrutinized, now the three boys, and now the three girls, with uncertain, unhappy looks, which traveled from one to the other. Suddenly, pushing his wine-glass from him, it broke, and the wine was spilt on the tablecloth, and at the slight noise caused by this little

o ideas and did not bring out a word. The Countess, with feminine tact and obeying her instincts of a woman of the world, tried to answer him two or three times, but in vain. She could not find w

ard: "Here, amidst your children, will you swea

h she had replied to his looks, she raised both her hands, the right pointing towards the boys and the left towards the girls, an

hen went out without another word, while she, uttering a deep sigh, as if after a first victory, went on in a calm voice: "You must not pay any a

had tender, pretty words for all her children; those

le following. She made the elder ones chatter, and when their bedtime

woman of the world; and in the pocket of her dress she put the little loaded revolver, which she had bought a few days previously. The hours went by, the hours struck, and e

ready for anything, and almost triumphant, for she had found mea

oke to the fact, much to her stupefaction, that he was not coming. Having locked and bolted her door, for greater security, she went to bed a

told her that he was going to undertake a long journey, and in a postscript he added that