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170 THE CONFESSION OF A FOOL
But she had just come into her mother’s money, the
entire furniture of a house, and a number of shares, some
of doubtful value, but nevertheless representing two or
three thousand crowns ; moreover, she was still receiving
her pay regularly from the theatre.
I could not understand her attitude . . . until sud-
denly I remembered her landlady and intimate friend.
She was an abominable, elderly woman, with the sus-
picious manners of a procuress ; nobody knew how she
lived ; she was always in debt, yet always extravagantly
and strikingly dressed ; somehow she managed to in-
gratiate herself with people, and she always ended by
asking them for a small loan, eternally bewailing her
miserable existence. A shady character, who hated me
because I saw through her.
Now I suddenly remembered an incident which had
happened two or three months ago, but which had not
interested me at the time. The woman had extracted a
promise from a friend of Marie’s to lend her a thousand
crowns. The promise had remained a promise. Event-
ually Marie, giving way to pressure and anxious to save
the reputation of her friend, who was badly compromised,
guaranteed to find the money, and actually raised the
sum. But instead of gratitude she reaped nothing but
reproaches from her friend, and when it came to ex-
planations, the old woman insisted on her perfect innocence
and laid the full blame on Marie’s shoulders. I had at the
time expressed my dislike and distrust of her, and urged
Marie to have nothing to do wdth an individual whose
manipulations came very close to blackmail.
But she had exonerated her false friend at the time.
. . . Later on she told a different story altogether, talked
of a misunderstanding ; in the end the whole incident
became "an invention of my evil imagination."
Possibly this woman had suggested to Marie the vile
idea of " presenting me with the bill." It must have
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