“Still, madame, the plan I want to propose to you would undoubtedly be
the wisest and the most advantageous for you. Will you live long enough
to see the end of such a case? And how do you know that your children
would have any desire to go on with it?”
To this my answer was still more concise, being couched in three words:
“All or nothing!”
I left the room as soon as they were uttered, and declined to see my
gouty old friend again, believing him to be a spy sent from my adversary.
Vainly I waited for the appearance of M. Alquier’s promised witnesses;
there were always fresh excuses on his part, and renewed requests for
money, which I was simple enough to grant. In less than a fortnight I had
spent more than three thousand crowns.
Weary of such expenses and delays, I longed to return to Nice, where
I arrived towards the end of the autumn. I had written to my husband,
who, during the winter, sent me his very disappointing opinion. Instead
of authorizing me to go to law, he advised attempting to come to some
arrangement.
I seized my pen at once to tell him shortly that, desiring to die as I
had lived, I could not compromise my honour.
Some months after, I received a second letter, in which he told me that,
on the advice of our friend, Admiral Krusenstern,[9] he was coming to me,
so as to endeavour to end the business in the best way possible.
He arrived towards the end of October, having stopped some time in Paris
to make fresh investigations. While allowing that I had excellent grounds
and very favourable chances, his constant refrain was: “We must try for
an arrangement”; while mine was a vexed and endless repetition of: “All
or nothing.”
His arrival was shortly followed by that of the Marchioness of B., who
came from Lausanne.
She told me that _the Duke of Orleans_, while visiting that town, had not
condescended even to ask news of her; adding that she quite understood
that I was the innocent cause of this base ingratitude.
The house she took at Nice being next door to mine, we saw each other
constantly; in fact, we were always together, and I can assert that that
winter was the happiest time in my wretched existence; though even then
I could not fully enjoy its consolations, because of my firm conviction
that they would speedily change to bitter sufferings.
My presentiments were but too well verified; my friend, for her part,
was obliged to go back to London, while the Baron, on his, announced his
positive intention to send Edward to a public school!