"'Just explain to me how it is that we, the Count and I, are the only men in whom you take an interest?' "'Because you are the only two who have trusted me without finessing,' he said. "Although this answer warranted my belief that Gobseck would act fairly even if the counter-deed were lost, I resolved to go to see the Count. I pleaded a business engagement, and we separated. "I went straight to the Rue du Helder, and was shown into a room where the Countess sat playing with her children. When she heard my name, she sprang up and came to meet me, then she sat down and pointed without a word to a chair by the fire. Her face wore the inscrutable mask beneath which women of the world conceal their most vehement emotions. Trouble had withered that face already. Nothing of its beauty now remained, save the marvelous outlines in which its principal charm had lain. "'It is essential, madame, that I should speak to M. le Comte----" "'If so, you would be more favored than I am,' she said, interrupting me. 'M. de Restaud will see no one. He will hardly allow his doctor to come, and will not be nursed even by me. When people are ill, they have such strange fancies! They are like children, they do not know what they want.' "'Perhaps, like children, they know very well what they want.' "The Countess reddened. I almost repented a thrust worthy of Gobseck. So, by way of changing the conversation, I added, 'But M. de Restaud cannot possibly lie there alone all day, madame.' "'His oldest boy is with him,' she said. "It was useless to gaze at the Countess; she did not blush this time, and it looked to me as if she were resolved more firmly than ever that I should not penetrate into her secrets. "'You must understand, madame, that my proceeding is no way indiscreet. It is strongly to his interest--' I bit my lips, feeling that I had gone the wrong way to work. The Countess immediately took advantage of my slip. "'My interests are in no way separate from my husband's, sir,' said she. 'There is nothing to prevent your addressing yourself to me----' "'The business which brings me here concerns no one but M. le Comte,' I said firmly.