He used to give me hundred-franc notes.”

“Never mind the notes. Why has Deschamps’ jealousy revived so suddenly just recently?”

“Why? Because mademoiselle would come back to the Op�ra Comique. Deschamps could not suffer that. And when she heard it was to be so, she wrote to me — to me! — and asked if it was true that mademoiselle was to appear as Carmen. Then she came to see me — me — and I was obliged to tell her it was true, and she was frightfully angry, and then she began to cry — oh, her despair! She said she knew a way to stop mademoiselle from singing, and she begged me to help her, and I said I would.”

“You were willing to betray your mistress?”