He shook his head. "No. She must have been very beautiful and Septimanie could never get on with pretty women. My impression is—yes, my impression is that she is connected with something unpleasant, with the memory of some horrible event buried deep in my memory which I can't quite recall. But I keep trying because when I saw her just now I had a kind of premonition, as if there were some kind of danger threatening—"
"Well, go and get some sleep. They say the night brings counsel. You may find you have remembered in the morning. Besides, we may be imagining things and giving a great deal too much importance to a poor woman who means no harm at all."
"It may be so. But I didn't care for the way she looked at us and I shan't be happy until I've worked out who she is."
Marianne slept soundly and forgot all about the woman in the black feathers. She was sitting up in bed the following morning, enjoying a real French breakfast of feather-light croissants, when there was a knock at her door. Thinking that the maid must have forgotten something, she bade her come in. But instead of the chambermaid's white cap, what peeped in was the powdered head of Jolival's mysterious lady.
She had her finger to her lips, enjoining silence, and she glanced back to make sure that there was no one in the passage before closing the door noiselessly behind her.
Marianne had paused in the act of spreading butter on a croissant and was staring at her in astonishment, her knife suspended in midair.
"Madame," she began, intending to request her uninvited visitor to let her breakfast in peace.
But once again the woman put her finger to her lips, accompanying the movement with a smile so charmingly girlish and confused that all Jolival's rather vague misgivings were forgotten in an instant. At last, when she had satisfied herself that all was quiet outside, the lady approached the bed and swept a curtsy that spoke Versailles in every line of it.
"I must beg you to pardon this unwarrantable intrusion when we have not even been introduced," she said in a voice as smooth as velvet, "but I do think that in a place where civilization is still in its infancy we may allow ourselves to dispense with some of the strict rules of polite society, while at the same time the natural ties which exist between people of the same nationality are strengthened to the point almost of brotherhood. But please, do not let me interrupt your breakfast."
This little speech had been rattled off with as much assurance as if the two of them were old acquaintances. Not to be outdone, Marianne assured her politely in return, though without any notable enthusiasm, that she was delighted to see her and begged she would be seated.
Her visitor pulled up a chair and sat down with a little sigh of satisfaction, spreading the shimmering skirts of her gray silk bedgown about her. She smiled again.
"The proprietor of the hotel told me that you were Mademoiselle d'Asselnat de Villeneuve and I can see that you are indeed the daughter of my dear friend Pierre. I was struck when I passed you yesterday by your extraordinary likeness to him."
"You knew my father?"
"Very well. I am the Comtesse de Gachet. My late husband was an officer in the same regiment. I knew your father when he was stationed at Douai in 1784."
She had no need to say more. In mentioning the father whom Marianne adored without ever having known him other than through his portrait, the woman had uttered the magic words. All Jolival's warnings and reservations were swept from her mind in an instant, and Marianne returned all her visitor's smiles and compliments in full. She even offered to share her breakfast with her, but Madame de Gachet would not hear of allowing her to ring for the chambermaid to bring fresh coffee and another cup.
"No, no. I've already had my breakfast. Besides, I would rather no one knew of this visit, so early and so unconventional as it is. People might start to wonder…"
Marianne laughed. "My dear madame," she said, "I really think you are worrying yourself unnecessarily. As you said yourself, manners are not so strict here as they are in France, and I am delighted to meet someone who knew my father since I never had the good fortune to do so myself."
"I'm sure. You must have been very young when he died."
"I was only a few months old. But do please tell me about him. You can't imagine how eager I am to listen."
"He was, I believe, the most handsome, gallant and noble gentleman imaginable…"
For the next few moments the Comtesse de Gachet held Marianne enthralled with an account of various occasions on which she had been in company with the Marquis d'Asselnat. But deeply interested as she was in all her visitor could tell her, Marianne could not help noticing that she seemed peculiarly ill at ease and that she was continually casting quick nervous glances at the door, as though she were afraid that someone might come in.
She broke off in the middle of her questions to say kindly: "You seem anxious, Countess. You have been kind enough to come and visit me and here I am pestering you with questions when I am sure your time is precious. If there is anything I can do to help you, I beg you to tell me."
Madame de Gachet smiled a trifle constrainedly, seemed to hesitate for a moment and then, as though reaching a rather difficult decision, she said in a low voice: "You are right. I am in great trouble—so much so that I ventured to call on you, a fellow countrywoman and the daughter of my old friend, in the hope that you might assist me. Yet now I hardly dare—I am so ashamed—"
"But why? Please, I beg of you, ask me anything—"
" You are so charming and have made me so welcome that now I am afraid in case I should turn you against me."
"I assure you you will not. Speak, I implore you."
The lady hesitated a moment longer and then, dropping her eyes to the lace handkerchief that she was kneading between her hands, she confessed at last: "I have suffered a terrible disaster. It is my misfortune, you see, to be a gambler. It is a shocking vice, I know that, but I started at Versailles in the circle of our unhappy queen and I can no longer help myself. Wherever I am, I have to play. Can you understand that?"
"I think so," Marianne said, thinking of Jolival, who was also an inveterate card player. "Are you trying to tell me that you have been playing here and you have lost?"
The countess nodded, without raising her eyes.
"Here, as in every other port in the world, there is a district—far from respectable, I am afraid—where every kind of gambling is carried on. It is called the Moldavanka. There is a house there run by a Greek, and I must say by no means ill-run at that. Yesterday I had some heavy losses there."
"How much?"
"Four thousand rubles. It is a great deal of money, I know," she went on hastily, seeing Marianne's involuntary gesture of dismay, "but I assure you that if you will lend it to me, with another thousand so that I may try and recoup my losses, it will not be money thrown away. I have something here which I should like you to accept as a pledge. Naturally, if I am not in a position to repay you by tonight, then you will keep it."
"But—"
Marianne broke off with a gasp. From the folds of the handkerchief she had been clutching so tightly Madame de Gachet had produced a magnificent jewel. It was a diamond drop so exquisitely pure and brilliant that the younger woman's eyes widened in amazement. It was like a fiery tear, a miniature sun containing all the concentrated radiance of the morning.
The countess let her gaze at it for a moment and then with a swift movement slipped it into her hand.
"Keep it," she said hurriedly. "I know it will be safe with you—and help me if you can!"
Marianne stared helplessly, now at the diamond scintillating in her palm and now at the woman. The lines in her face and the bitter twist to her mouth showed clearly in the morning light.