As soon as the quadrille was over, all the gentlemen who had
been at La Vivetiere surrounded Mademoiselle de Verneuil, wishing by
their flattering attentions to obtain her pardon for the mistake they
had made; but he whom she longed to see at her feet did not approach
the circle over which she now reigned a queen.
"He thinks I still love him," she thought, "and does not wish to be
confounded with mere flatterers."
She refused to dance again. Then, as if the ball were given for her,
she walked about on the arm of the Comte de Bauvan, to whom she was
pleased to show some familiarity. The affair at La Vivetiere was by
this time known to all present, thanks to Madame du Gua, and the
lovers were the object of general attention. The marquis dared not
again address his mistress; a sense of the wrong he had done her and
the violence of his returning passion made her seem to him actually
terrible. On her side Marie watched his apparently calm face while she
seemed to be observing the ball.
"It is fearfully hot here," she said to the count. "Take me to the
other side where I can breathe; I am stifling here."
And she motioned towards a small room where a few card-players were
assembled. The marquis followed her. He ventured to hope she had left
the crowd to receive him, and this supposed favor roused his passion
to extreme violence; for his love had only increased through the
resistance he had made to it during the last few days.
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