Raoul had actually smothered himself, like any poor work-girl, with a pan of charcoal.

He had written a letter to Blondet, which lay on the table, in which he asked him to ascribe his death to apoplexy.

The countess, however, had arrived in time; she had Raoul carried to her coach, and then, not knowing where else to care for him, she took him to a hotel, engaged a room, and sent for a doctor.

In a few hours Raoul was out of danger; but the countess did not leave him until she had obtained a general confession of the causes of his act.

When he had poured into her heart the dreadful elegy of his woes, she said, in order to make him willing to live:-- "I can arrange all that." But, nevertheless, she returned home with a heart oppressed with the same anxieties and ideas that had darkened Nathan's brow the night before.
"Well, what was the matter with your sister ?" said Felix, when his wife returned.