She interested him by the mystery of her person and her life, but outside her drawing-room he had never given her a thought.

Now ruminating about her he began almost to desire her.
Suddenly she benefited by the face of the unknown, for when Durtal evoked her she came confused to his sight, her physiognomy mingled with that which he had visualized when the first letters came.
Though the sneaking scoundrelism of her husband displeased him, he did not think her the less attractive, but his desires were no longer beyond control.

In spite of the distrust which she aroused, she might be an interesting mistress, making up for her barefaced vices by her good grace, but she was no longer the non-existent, the chimera raised in a moment of uncertainty.
On the other hand, if his conjectures were false, if it was not Mme.
Chantelouve who had written the letters, then the other, the unknown, lost a little of her subtlety by the mere fact that she could be incarnated in a creature whom he knew.

Still remote, she became less so; then her beauty deteriorated, because, in turn, she took on certain features of Mme.

Chantelouve, and if the latter had profited, the former, on the contrary, lost by the confusion which Durtal had established.
In one as in the other case, whether she were Mme.