"You are veritably afraid?" said Arafrantz.
"Listen," she replied. "I am leaving. I have people at my house; will you be so ungallant as not to accompany me?"
There was no possible response other than to retrieve his hat and offer the Countess his arm. He felt her tremble as they mounted her eagle together. When they arrove at her tree-balcony, no one was there at all, and Arafrantz remarked on this discrepancy.
"I need to be alone," she replied. "The sight of that man has filled me with a sudden unreasoning fear; he makes me helpless with terror. Whatever you do, promise never to introduce me to him, and never to speak to me right after speaking to him, lest you form as it were a conduit of his evil."
Having given his word to fulfil this rather odd request, Arafrantz took leave of the Countess and returned to his hotel.
