"Did you know this Mme. Despriol, Adèle?"
"That I did, at Mme. de la Vaudraye's, when they lived here. ... She was a very nice lady, so cheerful and pleasant; good-looking, too, but, worse luck, so weak with her husband that he did as he liked with her."
"Mme. de la Vaudraye told me something about some jewels ..."
"Oh, that was quite true! There's no denying it: a thief she was ... and Mme. de la Vaudraye has good reason not to love her. And how she does detest her! And then she was jealous of M. de la Vaudraye, who ventured to flirt just the least bit with Mme. Despriol. You can imagine how mad Mme. de la Vaudraye was! She turns pale to this day, if you mention Henriette Despriol's name ..."
A few days later, Gilberte received another letter from Maître Dufornéril:
