What bitter
reflections came into his ambitious mind, as he caught a glance from
Eleonore. If he obeyed Modeste all was over, and forever, between
himself and his protectress. Not to obey her was to avow his slavery,
to lose the chances of his twenty-five days of base manoeuvring, and
to disregard the plainest laws of decency and civility. The greater
the folly, the more imperatively the duchess exacted it. Modeste's
beauty and money thus pitted against Eleonore's rights and influence
made this hesitation between the man and his honor as terrible to
witness as the peril of a matador in the arena. A man seldom feels
such palpitations as those which now came near causing Canalis an
aneurism, except, perhaps, before the green table, where his fortune
or his ruin is about to be decided.
"Mademoiselle d'Herouville hurried me from the carriage, and I left
behind me," said Modeste to Canalis, "my handkerchief--"
Canalis shrugged his shoulders significantly.
"And," continued Modeste, taking no notice of his gesture, "I had tied
into one corner of it the key of a desk which contains the fragment of
an important letter; have the kindness, Monsieur Melchior, to get it
for me.
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