"Yes,his mistress,"replied the count."What is there so surprising in that?""I thought Monsieur Nathan too busy to have a mistress.Do authors have time to make love?""I don't say they love,my dear,but they are forced to LODGEsomewhere,like other men,and when they haven't a home of their own they LODGE with their mistresses;which may seem to you rather loose,but it is far more agreeable than lodging in a prison."Fire was less red than Marie's cheeks.
"Will you have him for a victim?I can help you to terrify him,"continued the count,not looking at his wife's face."I'll put you in the way of proving to him that he is being tricked like a child by your brother-in-law du Tillet.That wretch is trying to put Nathan in prison so as to make him ineligible to stand against him in the electoral college.I know,through a friend of Florine,the exact sum derived from the sale of her furniture,which she gave to Nathan to found his newspaper;I know,too,what she sent him out of her summer's harvest in the departments and in Belgium,--money which has really gone to the profit of du Tillet,Nucingen,and Massol.All three of them,unknown to Nathan,have privately sold the paper to the new ministry,so sure are they of ejecting him.""Monsieur Nathan is incapable of accepting money from an actress.""You don't know that class of people,my dear,"said the count."He would not deny the fact if you asked him.""I will certainly go to the ball,"said the countess.
"You will be very much amused,"replied Vandenesse."With such weapons in hand you can cut Nathan's complacency to the quick,and you will also do him a great service.You will put him in a fury;he'll try to be calm,though inwardly fuming;but,all the same,you will enlighten a man of talent as to the peril in which he really stands;and you will also have the satisfaction of laming the horses of the 'juste-milieu'in their stalls--But you are not listening to me,my dear.""On the contrary,I am listening intently,"she said."I will tell you later why I feel desirous to know the truth of all this.""You shall know it,"said Vandenesse."If you stay masked I will take you to supper with Nathan and Florine;it would be rather amusing for a woman of your rank to fool an actress after bewildering the wits of a clever man about these important facts;you can harness them both to the same hoax.I'll make some inquiries about Nathan's infidelities,and if I discover any of his recent adventures you shall enjoy the sight of a courtesan's fury;it is magnificent.Florine will boil and foam like an Alpine torrent;she adores Nathan;he is everything to her;she clings to him like flesh to the bones or a lioness to her cubs.I remember seeing,in my youth,a celebrated actress (who wrote like a scullion)when she came to a friend of mine to demand her letters.I have never seen such a sight again,such calm fury,such insolent majesty,such savage self-control--Are you ill,Marie?""No;they have made too much fire."The countess turned away and threw herself on a sofa.Suddenly,with an unforeseen movement,impelled by the horrible anguish of her jealousy,she rose on her trembling legs,crossed her arms,and came slowly to her husband.
"What do you know?"she asked."You are not a man to torture me;you would crush me without making me suffer if I were guilty.""What do you expect me to know,Marie?"
"Well!about Nathan."
"You think you love him,"he replied;"but you love a phantom made of words.""Then you know--"
"All,"he said.
The word fell on Marie's head like the blow of a club.
"If you wish it,I will know nothing,"he continued."You are standing on the brink of a precipice,my child,and I must draw you from it.Ihave already done something.See!"
He drew from his pocket her letter of guarantee and the four notes endorsed by Schmucke,and let the countess recognize them;then he threw them into the fire.
"What would have happened to you,my poor Marie,three months hence?"he said."The sheriffs would have taken you to a public court-room.
