Some one has warned him--an enemy of the Countess, a confrere of Maitland.

Such pieces of infamy occur among good friends.

If Gorka, who is a shot like Casal, kills Maitland in a duel, it will make one deceiver less.

If he avenges himself upon his mistress for that treason, it would be a matter of indifference to me, for Catherine Steno is a great rogue....

But my little friend, my poor, charming Alba, what would become of her if there should be a scandal, bloodshed, perhaps, on account of her mother's folly?
Gorka returned?
And he did not write it to me, to me who have received several letters from him since he went away; to me, whom he selected last autumn as the confidant of his jealousies, under the pretext that I knew women, and, with the vain hope of inspiring me....
His silence and return no longer seem like a romance; they savor rather of a drama, and with a Slav, as much a Slav as he is, one may expect anything.