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.