Chantelouve was before him.
Stupefied, he bowed, while Mme.

Chantelouve, without a word, went straight into the study.

There she turned around, and Durtal, who had followed, found himself face to face with her.
"Won't you please sit down ?" He advanced an armchair and hastened to push back, with his foot, the edge of the carpet turned up by the cat.
He asked her to excuse the disorder.

She made a vague gesture and remained standing.
In a calm but very low voice she said, "It is I who wrote you those mad letters.

I have come to drive away this bad fever and get it over with in a quite frank way.