She already studying the part of Agnes with an obscure old professor, Monsieur Maxime, of whom she thought highly because he was acquainted with all the traditions of the stage.

At night she was playing Cecile in _La Grille_, and she was living in a feverish turmoil of work she received a letter in which Robert de Ligny informed her that he was returning to Paris.
During his stay at The Hague he had made certain experiments which had proved to him the strength of his love for Felicie.

He had had women who were reported to be pretty and pleasing.

But neither Madame Bourmdernoot of Brussels, tall and fresh looking, nor the sisters Van Cruysen, milliners on the Vijver, nor Suzette Berger of the Folies-Marigny, then on tour through Northern Europe, had given him a sense of pleasure in its completeness.

When in their company he had regretted Felicie, and had discovered that of all women, he desired her alone.