What has he done to charm you? What method has he

taken to get into your heart? When I could not gain your affections

myself, it was some comfort to me to think, that no other could gain

them; in the meantime, another has effected what I could not, and I

have at once the jealousy of a husband and lover. But it is impossible

for me to retain that of a husband after such a proceeding on your

part, which is too noble and ingenuous not to give me an entire

security; it even comforts me as a lover; the sincerity you have

expressed, and the confidence you have placed in me are of infinite

value: you have esteem enough for me to believe I shall not abuse the

confession you have made to me; you are in the right, Madam, I will not

abuse it, or love you the less for it; you make me unhappy by the

greatest mark of fidelity ever woman gave her husband; but go on,

Madam, and inform me who he is whom you would avoid." "I beg you not

to ask me," replied she; "I am resolved not to tell you, nor do I think

it prudent to name him."

"Fear not, Madam," replied Monsieur de

Cleves, "I know the world too well to be ignorant that a woman's having

a husband does not hinder people from being in love with her; such

lovers may be the objects of one's hatred, but we are not to complain

of it; once again, Madam, I conjure you to tell me what I so much

desire to know." "It is in vain to press me," replied she, "I have the

power to be silent in what I think I ought not to tell; the confession

I made to you was not owing to any weakness, and it required more

courage to declare such a truth than it would have done to conceal it."

The Duke de Nemours did not lose a word of this conversation, and what

Madam de Cleves had said gave him no less jealousy than her husband; he

was so desperately in love with her, that he believed all the world was

so too; it is true, he had many rivals, yet he fancied them still more,

and his thoughts wandered to find out who it was Madam de Cleves meant:

he had often thought he was not disagreeable to her, but the grounds of

his judgment on this occasion appeared so slight, that he could not

imagine he had raised in her heart a passion violent enough to oblige

her to have recourse to so extraordinary a remedy; he was so

transported, that he scarce knew what he saw, and he could not pardon

Monsieur de Cleves for not having pressed his wife enough to tell him

the name of the person she concealed from him.




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