Klosking, had pierced Zoe through and through. Her mind grasped all that
had happened, all that impended, and, wisely declining to try and account
for, or reconcile, all the jarring details, she settled, with a woman's
broad instinct, that, somehow or other, his going back to Homburg meant
going back to Mademoiselle Klosking. Whether that lady would buy him or
not, she did not know. But going back to her meant going a journey to see
a rival, with consequences illimitable.
She had courage; she had pride; she had jealousy. She resolved to lose
her lover, or have him all to herself. Share him she would not, nor even
endure the torture of the doubt.
She took an envelope out of her satchel, and with the pencil attached to
her chatelaine wrote the fatal words, "If you go back to Homburg, oblige
me by remaining there."
At this moment she was not goaded by pique or any petty feeling. Indeed,
his reproach to Fanny had touched her a little, and it was with the tear
in her eye she came to the resolution, and handed him that line, which
told him she knew her value, and, cost what it might, would part with any
man forever rather than share him with the Klosking or any other woman.
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