quitted your dwelling, because it was impossible for me to live longer in
this atmosphere of dark hypocrisy and black treachery."

"Madame," said D'Aigrigny, "such words are as violent as they are
unreasonable."

"Since you interrupt me, sir," said Adrienne, hastily, as she fixed her
eyes on the abbe, "tell me what examples did I meet with in my aunt's
house?"

"Excellent, examples, madame."

"Excellent, sir? Was it because I saw there, every day, her conversion
keep pace with your own?"

"Madame, you forget yourself!" cried the princess, becoming pale with
rage.

"Madame, I do not forget--I remember, like other people; that is all. I
had no relation of whom I could ask an asylum. I wished to live alone. I
wished to enjoy my revenues--because I chose rather to spend them myself,
than to see them wasted by M. Tripeaud."

"Madame," cried the baron, "I cannot imagine how you can presume--"

"Sir!" said Adrienne, reducing him to silence by a gesture of
overwhelming lordliness, "I speak of you--not to you. I wished to spend
my income," she continued, "according to my own tastes. I embellished the
retreat that I had chosen. Instead of ugly, ill-taught servants, I
selected girls, pretty and well brought up, though poor. Their education