Would you know what I have prayed?
All night was I upon my knees from the moment that I recovered consciousness, and my prayers were that Heaven might see fit to let Florimond destroy your son.

Not that I desire Florimond's return, for I care not if I never set eyes on him again.

There is a curse upon this house, madame," the girl continued, rising from her chair and speaking now with a greater animation, whilst the Marquise recoiled a step, her face strangely altered and suddenly gone grey, "and I have prayed that that curse might be worked out upon that assassin, Marius.

A fine husband, madame, you would thrust upon the daughter of Gaston de La Vauvraye." And turning, without waiting for an answer, she moved slowly down the room, and took her way to her own desolate apartments, so full of memories of him she mourned--of him, it seemed to her, she must always mourn; of him who lay dead in the black waters of the moat beneath her window.
Stricken with a sudden, inexplicable terror, the Dowager, who for all her spirit was not without a certain superstition, felt her knees loosen, and she sank limply into a chair.

She was amazed at the extent of Valerie's knowledge, and puzzled by it; she was amazed, too, at the seeming apathy of Valerie for the danger in which Florimond stood, and at her avowal that she did not care if she never again beheld him.