Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. II.djvu/176

 supplanted in Teleny's affection by someone else forced itself upon me.

"'No, it was too ridiculous. Who could this rival be?'

"Like a thief I introduced the key in the lock; the hinges were well oiled, the door yielded noiselessly, and opened. I shut it carefully, without its emitting the slightest sound. I stole in on tiptoe.

"There were thick carpets everywhere that muffled my steps. I went to the room where, a few hours before, I had known such rapturous bliss.

"It was lighted.

"I heard stifled sounds within.

"I knew but too well what those sounds meant. For the first time I felt the shattering pangs of jealousy. It seemed as if a poisoned dagger had all at once been thrust into my heart; as if an enormous hydra had caught my body between its jaws, and had driven its huge fangs through the flesh of my chest.

"Why had I come here? What was I to do now? Where was I to go?