"Do you think, sir, that when I leave this place--for this outrage must have an end--that I will not proclaim aloud your infamous treachery? Do you think chat I will not denounce to the contempt and horror of all, your base conspiracy with Madame de Saint-Dizier? Oh! do you think that I will conceal the frightful treatment I have received! But, mad as I may be, I know that there are laws in this country, by which I will demand a full reparation for myself, and shame, disgrace, and punishment, for you, and for those who have employed you! Henceforth, between you and me will be hate and war to the death; and all my strength, all my intelligence--"
"Permit me to interrupt you, my dear Mdlle.Adrienne," said the doctor, still perfectly calm and affectionate: "nothing can be more unfavorable to your cure, than to cherish idle hopes: they will only tend to keep up a state of deplorable excitement: it is best to put the facts fairly before you, that you may understand clearly your position.
"1.It is impossible for you to leave this house.2.You can have no communication with any one beyond its walls.3.No one enters here that I cannot perfectly depend upon.4.I am completely indifferent to your threats of vengeance because law and reason are both in my favor."
"What! have you the right to shut me up here?"
"We should never have come to that determination, without a number of reasons of the most serious kind."
"Oh! there are reasons for it, it seems."
"Unfortunately, too many."
"You will perhaps inform me of them?"
"Alas! they are only too conclusive; and if you should ever apply to the protection of the laws, as you threatened me just now, we should be obliged to state them.The fantastical eccentricity of your manner of living, your whimsical mode of dressing up your maids, your extravagant expenditure, the story of the Indian prince, to whom you offered a royal hospitality, your unprecedented resolution of going to live by yourself, like a young bachelor, the adventure of the man found concealed in your bed-chamber; finally, the report of your yesterday's conversation, which was faithfully taken down in shorthand, by a person employed for that purpose."
"Yesterday?" cried Adrienne, with as much indignation as surprise.
"Oh, yes! to be prepared for every event, in case you should misinterpret the interest we take in you, we had all your answers reported by a man who was concealed behind a curtain in the next room; and really, one day, in a calmer state of mind, when you come to read over quietly the particulars of what took place, you will no longer be astonished at the resolution we have been forced to adopt."
"Go on, sir," said Adrienne, with contempt.
"The facts I have cited being thus confirmed and acknowledged, you will understand, my dear Mdlle.Adrienne, that your friends are perfectly free from responsibility.It was their duty to endeavor to cure this derangement of mind, which at present only shows itself in idle whims, but which, were it to increase, might seriously compromise the happiness of your future life.Now, in my opinion, we may hope to see a radical cure, by means of a treatment at once physical and moral; but the first condition of this attempt was to remove you from the scenes which so dangerously excited your imagination; whilst a calm retreat, the repose of a simple and solitary life combined with my anxious, I may say, paternal care, will gradually bring about a complete recovery--"
"So, sir," said Adrienne, with a bitter laugh, "the love of a noble independence, generosity, the worship of the beautiful, detestation of what is base and odious, such are the maladies of which you wish to cure me; I fear that my case is desperate, for my aunt has long ago tried to effect that benevolent purpose."
"Well, we may perhaps not succeed; but at least we will attempt it.You see, then, there is a mass of serious facts, quite enough to justify the determination come to by the family-council, which puts me completely at my ease with regard to your menaces.It is to that I wish to return; a man of my age and condition never acts lightly--in such circumstances, and you can readily understand what I was saying to you just now.In a word, do not hope to leave this place before your complete recovery, and rest assured, that I am and shall ever be safe from your resentment.
This being once admitted, let us talk of your actual state with all the interest that you naturally inspire."
"I think, sir, that, considering I am mad, you speak to me very reasonably."
"Mad! no, thank heaven, my poor child, you are not mad yet--and I hope that, by my care, you will never be so.It is to prevent your becoming mad, that one must take it in time; and believe me, it is full time.You look at me with such an air of surprise--now tell me, what interest can I have in talking to you thus? Is it the hatred of your aunt that I wish to favor? To what end, I would ask? What can she do for me or against me? I think of her at this moment neither more nor less than I thought yesterday.Is it a new language that I hold to yourself? Did I not speak to you yesterday many times, of the dangerous excitement of mind in which you were, and of your singular whims and fancies? It is true, I made use of stratagem to bring you hither.No doubt, I did so.I hastened to avail myself of the opportunity, which you yourself offered, my poor, dear child; for you would never have come hither with your own good will.One day or the other, we must have found some pretext to get you here: and I said to myself; `Her interest before all! Do your duty, let whatever will betide!'--"
