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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1411 ***
+
+DOMESTIC PEACE
+
+
+By Honore De Balzac
+
+
+
+Translated By Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell
+
+
+
+            Dedicated to my dear niece Valentine Surville.
+
+
+
+
+
+DOMESTIC PEACE
+
+
+The incident recorded in this sketch took place towards the end of the
+month of November, 1809, the moment when Napoleon’s fugitive empire
+attained the apogee of its splendor. The trumpet-blasts of Wagram were
+still sounding an echo in the heart of the Austrian monarchy. Peace was
+being signed between France and the Coalition. Kings and princes came to
+perform their orbits, like stars, round Napoleon, who gave himself the
+pleasure of dragging all Europe in his train--a magnificent
+experiment in the power he afterwards displayed at Dresden. Never, as
+contemporaries tell us, did Paris see entertainments more superb than
+those which preceded and followed the sovereign’s marriage with an
+Austrian archduchess. Never, in the most splendid days of the Monarchy,
+had so many crowned heads thronged the shores of the Seine, never
+had the French aristocracy been so rich or so splendid. The diamonds
+lavishly scattered over the women’s dresses, and the gold and silver
+embroidery on the uniforms contrasted so strongly with the penury of the
+Republic, that the wealth of the globe seemed to be rolling through the
+drawing-rooms of Paris. Intoxication seemed to have turned the brains
+of this Empire of a day. All the military, not excepting their chief,
+reveled like parvenus in the treasure conquered for them by a million
+men with worsted epaulettes, whose demands were satisfied by a few yards
+of red ribbon.
+
+At this time most women affected that lightness of conduct and facility
+of morals which distinguished the reign of Louis XV. Whether it were in
+imitation of the tone of the fallen monarchy, or because certain members
+of the Imperial family had set the example--as certain malcontents of
+the Faubourg Saint-Germain chose to say--it is certain that men and
+women alike flung themselves into a life of pleasure with an intrepidity
+which seemed to forbode the end of the world. But there was at that
+time another cause for such license. The infatuation of women for the
+military became a frenzy, and was too consonant to the Emperor’s views
+for him to try to check it. The frequent calls to arms, which gave every
+treaty concluded between Napoleon and the rest of Europe the character
+of an armistice, left every passion open to a termination as sudden as
+the decisions of the Commander-in-chief of all these busbys, pelisses,
+and aiguillettes, which so fascinated the fair sex. Hearts were as
+nomadic as the regiments. Between the first and fifth bulletins from the
+_Grand Armee_ a woman might be in succession mistress, wife, mother, and
+widow.
+
+Was it the prospect of early widowhood, the hope of a jointure, or
+that of bearing a name promised to history, which made the soldiers so
+attractive? Were women drawn to them by the certainty that the secret
+of their passions would be buried on the field of battle? or may we find
+the reason of this gentle fanaticism in the noble charm that courage has
+for a woman? Perhaps all these reasons, which the future historian
+of the manners of the Empire will no doubt amuse himself by weighing,
+counted for something in their facile readiness to abandon themselves
+to love intrigues. Be that as it may, it must here be confessed that at
+that time laurels hid many errors, women showed an ardent preference for
+the brave adventurers, whom they regarded as the true fount of honor,
+wealth, or pleasure; and in the eyes of young girls, an epaulette--the
+hieroglyphic of a future--signified happiness and liberty.
+
+One feature, and a characteristic one, of this unique period in our
+history was an unbridled mania for everything glittering. Never were
+fireworks so much in vogue, never were diamonds so highly prized. The
+men, as greedy as the women of these translucent pebbles, displayed them
+no less lavishly. Possibly the necessity for carrying plunder in the
+most portable form made gems the fashion in the army. A man was not
+ridiculous then, as he would be now, if his shirt-frill or his fingers
+blazed with large diamonds. Murat, an Oriental by nature, set the
+example of preposterous luxury to modern soldiers.
+
+The Comte de Gondreville, formerly known as Citizen Malin, whose
+elevation had made him famous, having become a Lucullus of the
+Conservative Senate, which “conserved” nothing, had postponed an
+entertainment in honor of the peace only that he might the better pay
+his court to Napoleon by his efforts to eclipse those flatterers who had
+been before-hand with him. The ambassadors from all the Powers
+friendly with France, with an eye to favors to come, the most important
+personages of the Empire, and even a few princes, were at this hour
+assembled in the wealthy senator’s drawing-rooms. Dancing flagged; every
+one was watching for the Emperor, whose presence the Count had promised
+his guests. And Napoleon would have kept his word but for the scene
+which had broken out that very evening between him and Josephine--the
+scene which portended the impending divorce of the august pair. The
+report of this incident, at the time kept very secret, but recorded by
+history, did not reach the ears of the courtiers, and had no effect on
+the gaiety of Comte de Gondreville’s party beyond keeping Napoleon away.
+
+The prettiest women in Paris, eager to be at the Count’s on the strength
+of mere hearsay, at this moment were a besieging force of luxury,
+coquettishness, elegance, and beauty. The financial world, proud of its
+riches, challenged the splendor of the generals and high officials of
+the Empire, so recently gorged with orders, titles, and honors. These
+grand balls were always an opportunity seized upon by wealthy families
+for introducing their heiresses to Napoleon’s Praetorian Guard, in the
+foolish hope of exchanging their splendid fortunes for uncertain favors.
+The women who believed themselves strong enough in their beauty alone
+came to test their power. There, as elsewhere, amusement was but a
+blind. Calm and smiling faces and placid brows covered sordid interests,
+expressions of friendship were a lie, and more than one man was less
+distrustful of his enemies than of his friends.
+
+These remarks are necessary to explain the incidents of the little
+imbroglio which is the subject of this study, and the picture, softened
+as it is, of the tone then dominant in Paris drawing-rooms.
+
+“Turn your eyes a little towards the pedestal supporting that
+candelabrum--do you see a young lady with her hair drawn back _a la
+Chinoise_!--There, in the corner to the left; she has bluebells in the
+knot of chestnut curls which fall in clusters on her head. Do not you
+see her? She is so pale you might fancy she was ill, delicate-looking,
+and very small; there--now she is turning her head this way; her
+almond-shaped blue eyes, so delightfully soft, look as if they were made
+expressly for tears. Look, look! She is bending forward to see Madame
+de Vaudremont below the crowd of heads in constant motion; the high
+head-dresses prevent her having a clear view.”
+
+“I see her now, my dear fellow. You had only to say that she had the
+whitest skin of all the women here; I should have known whom you meant.
+I had noticed her before; she has the loveliest complexion I ever
+admired. From hence I defy you to see against her throat the pearls
+between the sapphires of her necklace. But she is a prude or a coquette,
+for the tucker of her bodice scarcely lets one suspect the beauty of her
+bust. What shoulders! what lily-whiteness!”
+
+“Who is she?” asked the first speaker.
+
+“Ah! that I do not know.”
+
+“Aristocrat!--Do you want to keep them all to yourself, Montcornet?”
+
+“You of all men to banter me!” replied Montcornet, with a smile. “Do you
+think you have a right to insult a poor general like me because, being
+a happy rival of Soulanges, you cannot even turn on your heel without
+alarming Madame de Vaudremont? Or is it because I came only a month ago
+into the Promised Land? How insolent you can be, you men in office,
+who sit glued to your chairs while we are dodging shot and shell! Come,
+Monsieur le Maitre des Requetes, allow us to glean in the field of which
+you can only have precarious possession from the moment when we evacuate
+it. The deuce is in it! We have a right to live! My good friend, if you
+knew the German women, you would, I believe, do me a good turn with the
+Parisian you love best.”
+
+“Well, General, since you have vouchsafed to turn your attention to that
+lady, whom I never saw till now, have the charity to tell me if you have
+seen her dance.”
+
+“Why, my dear Martial, where have you dropped from? If you are ever sent
+with an embassy, I have small hopes of your success. Do not you see a
+triple rank of the most undaunted coquettes of Paris between her and the
+swarm of dancing men that buzz under the chandelier? And was it not only
+by the help of your eyeglass that you were able to discover her at all
+in the corner by that pillar, where she seems buried in the gloom, in
+spite of the candles blazing above her head? Between her and us there is
+such a sparkle of diamonds and glances, so many floating plumes, such a
+flutter of lace, of flowers and curls, that it would be a real miracle
+if any dancer could detect her among those stars. Why, Martial, how is
+it that you have not understood her to be the wife of some sous-prefet
+from Lippe or Dyle, who has come to try to get her husband promoted?”
+
+“Oh, he will be!” exclaimed the Master of Appeals quickly.
+
+“I doubt it,” replied the Colonel of Cuirassiers, laughing. “She seems
+as raw in intrigue as you are in diplomacy. I dare bet, Martial, that
+you do not know how she got into that place.”
+
+The lawyer looked at the Colonel of Cuirassiers with an expression as
+much of contempt as of curiosity.
+
+“Well,” proceeded Montcornet, “she arrived, I have no doubt, punctually
+at nine, the first of the company perhaps, and probably she greatly
+embarrassed the Comtesse de Gondreville, who cannot put two ideas
+together. Repulsed by the mistress of the house, routed from chair to
+chair by each newcomer, and driven into the darkness of this little
+corner, she allowed herself to be walled in, the victim of the jealousy
+of the other ladies, who would gladly have buried that dangerous beauty.
+She had, of course, no friend to encourage her to maintain the place she
+first held in the front rank; then each of those treacherous fair ones
+would have enjoined on the men of her circle on no account to take out
+our poor friend, under pain of the severest punishment. That, my dear
+fellow, is the way in which those sweet faces, in appearance so tender
+and so artless, would have formed a coalition against the stranger, and
+that without a word beyond the question, ‘Tell me, dear, do you know
+that little woman in blue?’--Look here, Martial, if you care to run the
+gauntlet of more flattering glances and inviting questions than you will
+ever again meet in the whole of your life, just try to get through the
+triple rampart which defends that Queen of Dyle, or Lippe, or Charente.
+You will see whether the dullest woman of them all will not be equal
+to inventing some wile that would hinder the most determined man from
+bringing the plaintive stranger to the light. Does it not strike you
+that she looks like an elegy?”
+
+“Do you think so, Montcornet? Then she must be a married woman?”
+
+“Why not a widow?”
+
+“She would be less passive,” said the lawyer, laughing.
+
+“She is perhaps the widow of a man who is gambling,” replied the
+handsome Colonel.
+
+“To be sure; since the peace there are so many widows of that class!”
+ said Martial. “But my dear Montcornet, we are a couple of simpletons.
+That face is still too ingenuous, there is too much youth and
+freshness on the brow and temples for her to be married. What splendid
+flesh-tints! Nothing has sunk in the modeling of the nose. Lips, chin,
+everything in her face is as fresh as a white rosebud, though the
+expression is veiled, as it were, by the clouds of sadness. Who can it
+be that makes that young creature weep?”
+
+“Women cry for so little,” said the Colonel.
+
+“I do not know,” replied Martial; “but she does not cry because she is
+left there without a partner; her grief is not of to-day. It is evident
+that she has beautified herself for this evening with intention. I would
+wager that she is in love already.”
+
+“Bah! She is perhaps the daughter of some German princeling; no one
+talks to her,” said Montcornet.
+
+“Dear! how unhappy a poor child may be!” Martial went on. “Can there be
+anything more graceful and refined than our little stranger? Well, not
+one of those furies who stand round her, and who believe that they can
+feel, will say a word to her. If she would but speak, we should see if
+she has fine teeth.
+
+“Bless me, you boil over like milk at the least increase of
+temperature!” cried the Colonel, a little nettled at so soon finding a
+rival in his friend.
+
+“What!” exclaimed the lawyer, without heeding the Colonel’s question.
+“Can nobody here tell us the name of this exotic flower?”
+
+“Some lady companion!” said Montcornet.
+
+“What next? A companion! wearing sapphires fit for a queen, and a dress
+of Malines lace? Tell that to the marines, General. You, too, would not
+shine in diplomacy if, in the course of your conjectures, you jump in a
+breath from a German princess to a lady companion.”
+
+Montcornet stopped a man by taking his arm--a fat little man, whose
+iron-gray hair and clever eyes were to be seen at the lintel of every
+doorway, and who mingled unceremoniously with the various groups which
+welcomed him respectfully.
+
+“Gondreville, my friend,” said Montcornet, “who is that quite charming
+little woman sitting out there under that huge candelabrum?”
+
+“The candelabrum? Ravrio’s work; Isabey made the design.”
+
+“Oh, I recognized your lavishness and taste; but the lady?”
+
+“Ah! I do not know. Some friend of my wife’s, no doubt.”
+
+“Or your mistress, you old rascal.”
+
+“No, on my honor. The Comtesse de Gondreville is the only person capable
+of inviting people whom no one knows.”
+
+In spite of this very acrimonious comment, the fat little man’s lips did
+not lose the smile which the Colonel’s suggestion had brought to them.
+Montcornet returned to the lawyer, who had rejoined a neighboring group,
+intent on asking, but in vain, for information as to the fair unknown.
+He grasped Martial’s arm, and said in his ear:
+
+“My dear Martial, mind what you are about. Madame de Vaudremont has been
+watching you for some minutes with ominous attentiveness; she is a woman
+who can guess by the mere movement of your lips what you say to me;
+our eyes have already told her too much; she has perceived and followed
+their direction, and I suspect that at this moment she is thinking even
+more than we are of the little blue lady.”
+
+“That is too old a trick in warfare, my dear Montcornet! However, what
+do I care? Like the Emperor, when I have made a conquest, I keep it.”
+
+“Martial, your fatuity cries out for a lesson. What! you, a civilian,
+and so lucky as to be the husband-designate of Madame de Vaudremont, a
+widow of two-and-twenty, burdened with four thousand napoleons a year--a
+woman who slips such a diamond as this on your finger,” he added, taking
+the lawyer’s left hand, which the young man complacently allowed; “and,
+to crown all, you affect the Lovelace, just as if you were a colonel and
+obliged to keep up the reputation of the military in home quarters! Fie,
+fie! Only think of all you may lose.”
+
+“At any rate, I shall not lose my liberty,” replied Martial, with a
+forced laugh.
+
+He cast a passionate glance at Madame de Vaudremont, who responded only
+by a smile of some uneasiness, for she had seen the Colonel examining
+the lawyer’s ring.
+
+“Listen to me, Martial. If you flutter round my young stranger, I shall
+set to work to win Madame de Vaudremont.”
+
+“You have my full permission, my dear Cuirassier, but you will not
+gain this much,” and the young Maitre des Requetes put his polished
+thumb-nail under an upper tooth with a little mocking click.
+
+“Remember that I am unmarried,” said the Colonel; “that my sword is my
+whole fortune; and that such a challenge is setting Tantalus down to a
+banquet which he will devour.”
+
+“Prrr.”
+
+This defiant roll of consonants was the only reply to the Colonel’s
+declaration, as Martial looked him from head to foot before turning
+away.
+
+The fashion of the time required men to wear at a ball white kerseymere
+breeches and silk stockings. This pretty costume showed to great
+advantage the perfection of Montcornet’s fine shape. He was
+five-and-thirty, and attracted attention by his stalwart height,
+insisted on for the Cuirassiers of the Imperial Guard whose handsome
+uniform enhanced the dignity of his figure, still youthful in spite
+of the stoutness occasioned by living on horseback. A black moustache
+emphasized the frank expression of a thoroughly soldierly countenance,
+with a broad, high forehead, an aquiline nose, and bright red lips.
+Montcornet’s manner, stamped with a certain superiority due to the habit
+of command, might please a woman sensible enough not to aim at making a
+slave of her husband. The Colonel smiled as he looked at the lawyer, one
+of his favorite college friends, whose small figure made it necessary
+for Montcornet to look down a little as he answered his raillery with a
+friendly glance.
+
+Baron Martial de la Roche-Hugon was a young Provencal patronized by
+Napoleon; his fate might probably be some splendid embassy. He had
+won the Emperor by his Italian suppleness and a genius for intrigue, a
+drawing-room eloquence, and a knowledge of manners, which are so good a
+substitute for the higher qualities of a sterling man. Through young
+and eager, his face had already acquired the rigid brilliancy of tinned
+iron, one of the indispensable characteristics of diplomatists, which
+allows them to conceal their emotions and disguise their feelings,
+unless, indeed, this impassibility indicates an absence of all emotion
+and the death of every feeling. The heart of a diplomate may be regarded
+as an insoluble problem, for the three most illustrious ambassadors of
+the time have been distinguished by perdurable hatreds and most romantic
+attachments.
+
+Martial, however, was one of those men who are capable of reckoning on
+the future in the midst of their intensest enjoyment; he had already
+learned to judge the world, and hid his ambition under the fatuity of a
+lady-killer, cloaking his talent under the commonplace of mediocrity
+as soon as he observed the rapid advancement of those men who gave the
+master little umbrage.
+
+The two friends now had to part with a cordial grasp of hands. The
+introductory tune, warning the ladies to form in squares for a fresh
+quadrille, cleared the men away from the space they had filled while
+talking in the middle of the large room. This hurried dialogue had taken
+place during the usual interval between two dances, in front of the
+fireplace of the great drawing-room of Gondreville’s mansion. The
+questions and answers of this very ordinary ballroom gossip had been
+almost whispered by each of the speakers into his neighbor’s ear. At the
+same time, the chandeliers and the flambeaux on the chimney-shelf shed
+such a flood of light on the two friends that their faces, strongly
+illuminated, failed, in spite of their diplomatic discretion, to conceal
+the faint expression of their feelings either from the keen-sighted
+countess or the artless stranger. This espionage of people’s thoughts is
+perhaps to idle persons one of the pleasures they find in society, while
+numbers of disappointed numskulls are bored there without daring to own
+it.
+
+
+
+Fully to appreciate the interest of this conversation, it is necessary
+to relate an incident which would presently serve as an invisible bond,
+drawing together the actors in this little drama, who were at present
+scattered through the rooms.
+
+At about eleven o’clock, just as the dancers were returning to their
+seats, the company had observed the entrance of the handsomest woman in
+Paris, the queen of fashion, the only person wanting to the brilliant
+assembly. She made it a rule never to appear till the moment when a
+party had reached that pitch of excited movement which does not allow
+the women to preserve much longer the freshness of their faces or of
+their dress. This brief hour is, as it were, the springtime of a ball.
+An hour after, when pleasure falls flat and fatigue is encroaching,
+everything is spoilt. Madame de Vaudremont never committed the blunder
+of remaining at a party to be seen with drooping flowers, hair out
+of curl, tumbled frills, and a face like every other that sleep is
+courting--not always without success. She took good care not to let her
+beauty be seen drowsy, as her rivals did; she was so clever as to
+keep up her reputation for smartness by always leaving a ballroom in
+brilliant order, as she had entered it. Women whispered to each other
+with a feeling of envy that she planned and wore as many different
+dresses as the parties she went to in one evening.
+
+On the present occasion Madame de Vaudremont was not destined to be free
+to leave when she would the ballroom she had entered in triumph. Pausing
+for a moment on the threshold, she shot swift but observant glances on
+the women present, hastily scrutinizing their dresses to assure herself
+that her own eclipsed them all.
+
+The illustrious beauty presented herself to the admiration of the crowd
+at the same moment with one of the bravest colonels of the Guards’
+Artillery and the Emperor’s favorite, the Comte de Soulanges. The
+transient and fortuitous association of these two had about it a certain
+air of mystery. On hearing the names announced of Monsieur de Soulanges
+and the Comtesse de Vaudremont, a few women sitting by the wall rose,
+and men, hurrying in from the side-rooms, pressed forward to the
+principal doorway. One of the jesters who are always to be found in any
+large assembly said, as the Countess and her escort came in, that “women
+had quite as much curiosity about seeing a man who was faithful to his
+passion as men had in studying a woman who was difficult to enthrall.”
+
+Though the Comte de Soulanges, a young man of about two-and-thirty, was
+endowed with the nervous temperament which in a man gives rise to fine
+qualities, his slender build and pale complexion were not at first sight
+attractive; his black eyes betrayed great vivacity, but he was taciturn
+in company, and there was nothing in his appearance to reveal the gift
+for oratory which subsequently distinguished him, on the Right, in the
+legislative assembly under the Restoration.
+
+The Comtesse de Vaudremont, a tall woman, rather fat, with a skin of
+dazzling whiteness, a small head that she carried well, and the immense
+advantage of inspiring love by the graciousness of her manner, was one
+of those beings who keep all the promise of their beauty.
+
+The pair, who for a few minutes were the centre of general observation,
+did not for long give curiosity an opportunity of exercising itself
+about them. The Colonel and the Countess seemed perfectly to understand
+that accident had placed them in an awkward position. Martial, as they
+came forward, had hastened to join the group of men by the fireplace,
+that he might watch Madame de Vaudremont with the jealous anxiety of
+the first flame of passion, from behind the heads which formed a sort of
+rampart; a secret voice seemed to warn him that the success on which he
+prided himself might perhaps be precarious. But the coldly polite smile
+with which the Countess thanked Monsieur de Soulanges, and her little
+bow of dismissal as she sat down by Madame de Gondreville, relaxed the
+muscles of his face which jealousy had made rigid. Seeing Soulanges,
+however, still standing quite near the sofa on which Madame de
+Vaudremont was seated, not apparently having understood the glance
+by which the lady had conveyed to him that they were both playing a
+ridiculous part, the volcanic Provencal again knit the black brows that
+overshadowed his blue eyes, smoothed his chestnut curls to keep himself
+in countenance, and without betraying the agitation which made his heart
+beat, watched the faces of the Countess and of M. de Soulanges while
+still chatting with his neighbors. He then took the hand of Colonel
+Montcornet, who had just renewed their old acquaintance, but he listened
+to him without hearing him; his mind was elsewhere.
+
+Soulanges was gazing calmly at the women, sitting four ranks deep all
+round the immense ballroom, admiring this dado of diamonds, rubies,
+masses of gold and shining hair, of which the lustre almost outshone the
+blaze of waxlights, the cutglass of the chandeliers, and the gilding.
+His rival’s stolid indifference put the lawyer out of countenance. Quite
+incapable of controlling his secret transports of impatience, Martial
+went towards Madame de Vaudremont with a bow. On seeing the Provencal,
+Soulanges gave him a covert glance, and impertinently turned away his
+head. Solemn silence now reigned in the room, where curiosity was at
+the highest pitch. All these eager faces wore the strangest mixed
+expressions; every one apprehended one of those outbreaks which men of
+breeding carefully avoid. Suddenly the Count’s pale face turned as red
+as the scarlet facings of his coat, and he fixed his gaze on the floor
+that the cause of his agitation might not be guessed. On catching sight
+of the unknown lady humbly seated by the pedestal of the candelabrum,
+he moved away with a melancholy air, passing in front of the lawyer, and
+took refuge in one of the cardrooms. Martial and all the company thought
+that Soulanges had publicly surrendered the post, out of fear of the
+ridicule which invariably attaches to a discarded lover. The lawyer
+proudly raised his head and looked at the strange lady; then, as he took
+his seat at his ease near Madame de Vaudremont, he listened to her so
+inattentively that he did not catch these words spoken behind her fan:
+
+“Martial, you will oblige me this evening by not wearing that ring that
+you snatched from me. I have my reasons, and will explain them to you
+in a moment when we go away. You must give me your arm to go to the
+Princess de Wagram’s.”
+
+“Why did you come in with the Colonel?” asked the Baron.
+
+“I met him in the hall,” she replied. “But leave me now; everybody is
+looking at us.”
+
+Martial returned to the Colonel of Cuirassiers. Then it was that the
+little blue lady had become the object of the curiosity which agitated
+in such various ways the Colonel, Soulanges, Martial, and Madame de
+Vaudremont.
+
+When the friends parted, after the challenge which closed their
+conversation, the Baron flew to Madame de Vaudremont, and led her to
+a place in the most brilliant quadrille. Favored by the sort of
+intoxication which dancing always produces in a woman, and by the
+turmoil of a ball, where men appear in all the trickery of dress,
+which adds no less to their attractions than it does to those of women,
+Martial thought he might yield with impunity to the charm that attracted
+his gaze to the fair stranger. Though he succeeded in hiding his first
+glances towards the lady in blue from the anxious activity of the
+Countess’ eyes, he was ere long caught in the fact; and though he
+managed to excuse himself once for his absence of mind, he could not
+justify the unseemly silence with which he presently heard the most
+insinuating question which a woman can put to a man:
+
+“Do you like me very much this evening?”
+
+And the more dreamy he became, the more the Countess pressed and teased
+him.
+
+While Martial was dancing, the Colonel moved from group to group,
+seeking information about the unknown lady. After exhausting the
+good-humor even of the most indifferent, he had resolved to take
+advantage of a moment when the Comtesse de Gondreville seemed to be at
+liberty, to ask her the name of the mysterious lady, when he perceived a
+little space left clear between the pedestal of the candelabrum and the
+two sofas, which ended in that corner. The dance had left several of the
+chairs vacant, which formed rows of fortifications held by mothers or
+women of middle age; and the Colonel seized the opportunity to make his
+way through this palisade hung with shawls and wraps. He began by making
+himself agreeable to the dowagers, and so from one to another, and from
+compliment to compliment, he at last reached the empty space next the
+stranger. At the risk of catching on to the gryphons and chimaeras of
+the huge candelabrum, he stood there, braving the glare and dropping of
+the wax candles, to Martial’s extreme annoyance.
+
+The Colonel, far too tactful to speak suddenly to the little blue lady
+on his right, began by saying to a plain woman who was seated on the
+left:
+
+“This is a splendid ball, madame! What luxury! What life! On my word,
+every woman here is pretty! You are not dancing--because you do not care
+for it, no doubt.”
+
+This vapid conversation was solely intended to induce his right-hand
+neighbor to speak; but she, silent and absent-minded, paid not the
+least attention. The officer had in store a number of phrases which he
+intended should lead up to: “And you, madame?”--a question from which he
+hoped great things. But he was strangely surprised to see tears in the
+strange lady’s eyes, which seemed wholly absorbed in gazing on Madame de
+Vaudremont.
+
+“You are married, no doubt, madame?” he asked her at length, in
+hesitating tones.
+
+“Yes, monsieur,” replied the lady.
+
+“And your husband is here, of course?”
+
+“Yes, monsieur.”
+
+“And why, madame, do you remain in this spot? Is it to attract
+attention?”
+
+The mournful lady smiled sadly.
+
+“Allow me the honor, madame, of being your partner in the next
+quadrille, and I will take care not to bring you back here. I see a
+vacant settee near the fire; come and take it. When so many people
+are ready to ascend the throne, and Royalty is the mania of the day, I
+cannot imagine that you will refuse the title of Queen of the Ball which
+your beauty may claim.”
+
+“I do not intend to dance, monsieur.”
+
+The curt tone of the lady’s replies was so discouraging that the Colonel
+found himself compelled to raise the siege. Martial, who guessed what
+the officer’s last request had been, and the refusal he had met with,
+began to smile, and stroked his chin, making the diamond sparkle which
+he wore on his finger.
+
+“What are you laughing at?” said the Comtesse de Vaudremont.
+
+“At the failure of the poor Colonel, who has just put his foot in
+it----”
+
+“I begged you to take your ring off,” said the Countess, interrupting
+him.
+
+“I did not hear you.”
+
+“If you can hear nothing this evening, at any rate you see everything,
+Monsieur le Baron,” said Madame de Vaudremont, with an air of vexation.
+
+“That young man is displaying a very fine diamond,” the stranger
+remarked to the Colonel.
+
+“Splendid,” he replied. “The man is the Baron Martial de la Roche-Hugon,
+one of my most intimate friends.”
+
+“I have to thank you for telling me his name,” she went on; “he seems an
+agreeable man.”
+
+“Yes, but he is rather fickle.”
+
+“He seems to be on the best terms with the Comtesse de Vaudremont?” said
+the lady, with an inquiring look at the Colonel.
+
+“On the very best.”
+
+The unknown turned pale.
+
+“Hallo!” thought the soldier, “she is in love with that lucky devil
+Martial.”
+
+“I fancied that Madame de Vaudremont had long been devoted to M. de
+Soulanges,” said the lady, recovering a little from the suppressed grief
+which had clouded the fairness of her face.
+
+“For a week past the Countess has been faithless,” replied the Colonel.
+“But you must have seen poor Soulanges when he came in; he is till
+trying to disbelieve in his disaster.”
+
+“Yes, I saw him,” said the lady. Then she added, “Thank you very much,
+monsieur,” in a tone which signified a dismissal.
+
+At this moment the quadrille was coming to an end. Montcornet had only
+time to withdraw, saying to himself by way of consolation, “She is
+married.”
+
+“Well, valiant Cuirassier,” exclaimed the Baron, drawing the Colonel
+aside into a window-bay to breathe the fresh air from the garden, “how
+are you getting on?”
+
+“She is a married woman, my dear fellow.”
+
+“What does that matter?”
+
+“Oh, deuce take it! I am a decent sort of man,” replied the Colonel. “I
+have no idea of paying my addresses to a woman I cannot marry. Besides,
+Martial, she expressly told me that she did not intend to dance.”
+
+“Colonel, I will bet a hundred napoleons to your gray horse that she
+will dance with me this evening.”
+
+“Done!” said the Colonel, putting his hand in the coxcomb’s. “Meanwhile
+I am going to look for Soulanges; he perhaps knows the lady, as she
+seems interested in him.”
+
+“You have lost, my good fellow,” cried Martial, laughing. “My eyes
+have met hers, and I know what they mean. My dear friend, you owe me no
+grudge for dancing with her after she has refused you?”
+
+“No, no. Those who laugh last, laugh longest. But I am an honest gambler
+and a generous enemy, Martial, and I warn you, she is fond of diamonds.”
+
+With these words the friends parted; General Montcornet made his way
+to the cardroom, where he saw the Comte de Soulanges sitting at a
+_bouillotte_ table. Though there was no friendship between the two
+soldiers, beyond the superficial comradeship arising from the perils
+of war and the duties of the service, the Colonel of Cuirassiers was
+painfully struck by seeing the Colonel of Artillery, whom he knew to
+be a prudent man, playing at a game which might bring him to ruin. The
+heaps of gold and notes piled on the fateful cards showed the frenzy of
+play. A circle of silent men stood round the players at the table. Now
+and then a few words were spoken--_pass, play, I stop, a thousand Louis,
+taken_--but, looking at the five motionless men, it seemed as though
+they talked only with their eyes. As the Colonel, alarmed by Soulanges’
+pallor, went up to him, the Count was winning. Field-Marshal the Duc
+d’Isemberg, Keller, and a famous banker rose from the table completely
+cleaned out of considerable sums. Soulanges looked gloomier than ever as
+he swept up a quantity of gold and notes; he did not even count it; his
+lips curled with bitter scorn, he seemed to defy fortune rather than be
+grateful for her favors.
+
+“Courage,” said the Colonel. “Courage, Soulanges!” Then, believing he
+would do him a service by dragging him from play, he added: “Come with
+me. I have some good news for you, but on one condition.”
+
+“What is that?” asked Soulanges.
+
+“That you will answer a question I will ask you.”
+
+The Comte de Soulanges rose abruptly, placing his winnings with reckless
+indifference in his handkerchief, which he had been twisting with
+convulsive nervousness, and his expression was so savage that none of
+the players took exception to his walking off with their money. Indeed,
+every face seemed to dilate with relief when his morose and crabbed
+countenance was no longer to be seen under the circle of light which a
+shaded lamp casts on a gaming-table.
+
+“Those fiends of soldiers are always as thick as thieves at a fair!”
+ said a diplomate who had been looking on, as he took Soulanges’ place.
+One single pallid and fatigued face turned to the newcomer, and said
+with a glance that flashed and died out like the sparkle of a diamond:
+“When we say military men, we do not mean civil, Monsieur le Ministre.”
+
+“My dear fellow,” said Montcornet to Soulanges, leading him into a
+corner, “the Emperor spoke warmly in your praise this morning, and your
+promotion to be field-marshal is a certainty.”
+
+“The Master does not love the Artillery.”
+
+“No, but he adores the nobility, and you are an aristocrat. The Master
+said,” added Montcornet, “that the men who had married in Paris during
+the campaign were not therefore to be considered in disgrace. Well
+then?”
+
+The Comte de Soulanges looked as if he understood nothing of this
+speech.
+
+“And now I hope,” the Colonel went on, “that you will tell me if
+you know a charming little woman who is sitting under a huge
+candelabrum----”
+
+At these words the Count’s face lighted up; he violently seized the
+Colonel’s hand: “My dear General,” said he, in a perceptibly altered
+voice, “if any man but you had asked me such a question, I would have
+cracked his skull with this mass of gold. Leave me, I entreat you.
+I feel more like blowing out my brains this evening, I assure you,
+than----I hate everything I see. And, in fact, I am going. This gaiety,
+this music, these stupid faces, all laughing, are killing me!”
+
+“My poor friend!” replied Montcornet gently, and giving the Count’s hand
+a friendly pressure, “you are too vehement. What would you say if I told
+you that Martial is thinking so little of Madame de Vaudremont that he
+is quite smitten with that little lady?”
+
+“If he says a word to her,” cried Soulanges, stammering with rage, “I
+will thrash him as flat as his own portfolio, even if the coxcomb were
+in the Emperor’s lap!”
+
+And he sank quite overcome on an easy-chair to which Montcornet had led
+him. The colonel slowly went away, for he perceived that Soulanges
+was in a state of fury far too violent for the pleasantries or the
+attentions of superficial friendship to soothe him.
+
+When Montcornet returned to the ballroom, Madame de Vaudremont was the
+first person on whom his eyes fell, and he observed on her face, usually
+so calm, some symptoms of ill-disguised agitation. A chair was vacant
+near hers, and the Colonel seated himself.
+
+“I dare wager something has vexed you?” said he.
+
+“A mere trifle, General. I want to be gone, for I have promised to go to
+a ball at the Grand Duchess of Berg’s, and I must look in first at the
+Princesse de Wagram’s. Monsieur de la Roche-Hugon, who knows this, is
+amusing himself by flirting with the dowagers.”
+
+“That is not the whole secret of your disturbance, and I will bet a
+hundred louis that you will remain here the whole evening.”
+
+“Impertinent man!”
+
+“Then I have hit the truth?”
+
+“Well, tell me, what am I thinking of?” said the Countess, tapping the
+Colonel’s fingers with her fan. “I might even reward you if you guess
+rightly.”
+
+“I will not accept the challenge; I have too much the advantage of you.”
+
+“You are presumptuous.”
+
+“You are afraid of seeing Martial at the feet----”
+
+“Of whom?” cried the Countess, affecting surprise.
+
+“Of that candelabrum,” replied the Colonel, glancing at the fair
+stranger, and then looking at the Countess with embarrassing scrutiny.
+
+“You have guessed it,” replied the coquette, hiding her face behind her
+fan, which she began to play with. “Old Madame de Lansac, who is, you
+know, as malicious as an old monkey,” she went on, after a pause, “has
+just told me that Monsieur de la Roche-Hugon is running into danger by
+flirting with that stranger, who sits here this evening like a skeleton
+at a feast. I would rather see a death’s head than that face, so cruelly
+beautiful, and as pale as a ghost. She is my evil genius.--Madame de
+Lansac,” she added, after a flash and gesture of annoyance, “who only
+goes to a ball to watch everything while pretending to sleep, has made
+me miserably anxious. Martial shall pay dearly for playing me such a
+trick. Urge him, meanwhile, since he is your friend, not to make me so
+unhappy.”
+
+“I have just been with a man who promises to blow his brains out, and
+nothing less, if he speaks to that little lady. And he is a man, madame,
+to keep his word. But then I know Martial; such threats are to him
+an encouragement. And, besides, we have wagered----” Here the Colonel
+lowered his voice.
+
+“Can it be true?” said the Countess.
+
+“On my word of honor.”
+
+“Thank you, my dear Colonel,” replied Madame de Vaudremont, with a
+glance full of invitation.
+
+“Will you do me the honor of dancing with me?”
+
+“Yes; but the next quadrille. During this one I want to find out what
+will come of this little intrigue, and to ascertain who the little blue
+lady may be; she looks intelligent.”
+
+The Colonel, understanding that Madame de Vaudremont wished to be alone,
+retired, well content to have begun his attack so well.
+
+
+
+At most entertainments women are to be met who are there, like Madame de
+Lansac, as old sailors gather on the seashore to watch younger mariners
+struggling with the tempest. At this moment Madame de Lansac, who seemed
+to be interested in the personages of this drama, could easily guess
+the agitation which the Countess was going through. The lady might fan
+herself gracefully, smile on the young men who bowed to her, and bring
+into play all the arts by which a woman hides her emotion,--the Dowager,
+one of the most clear-sighted and mischief-loving duchesses bequeathed
+by the eighteenth century to the nineteenth, could read her heart and
+mind through it all.
+
+The old lady seemed to detect the slightest movement that revealed the
+impressions of the soul. The imperceptible frown that furrowed that
+calm, pure forehead, the faintest quiver of the cheeks, the curve of the
+eyebrows, the least curl of the lips, whose living coral could conceal
+nothing from her,--all these were to the Duchess like the print of a
+book. From the depths of her large arm-chair, completely filled by
+the flow of her dress, the coquette of the past, while talking to a
+diplomate who had sought her out to hear the anecdotes she told so
+cleverly, was admiring herself in the younger coquette; she felt kindly
+to her, seeing how bravely she disguised her annoyance and grief of
+heart. Madame de Vaudremont, in fact, felt as much sorrow as she feigned
+cheerfulness; she had believed that she had found in Martial a man of
+talent on whose support she could count for adorning her life with all
+the enchantment of power; and at this moment she perceived her mistake,
+as injurious to her reputation as to her good opinion of herself. In
+her, as in other women of that time, the suddenness of their passions
+increased their vehemence. Souls which love much and love often, suffer
+no less than those which burn themselves out in one affection. Her
+liking for Martial was but of yesterday, it is true, but the least
+experienced surgeon knows that the pain caused by the amputation of a
+healthy limb is more acute than the removal of a diseased one. There was
+a future before Madame de Vaudremont’s passion for Martial, while her
+previous love had been hopeless, and poisoned by Soulanges’ remorse.
+
+The old Duchess, who was watching for an opportunity of speaking to the
+Countess, hastened to dismiss her Ambassador; for in comparison with a
+lover’s quarrel every interest pales, even with an old woman. To engage
+battle, Madame de Lansac shot at the younger lady a sardonic glance
+which made the Countess fear lest her fate was in the dowager’s hands.
+There are looks between woman and woman which are like the torches
+brought on at the climax of a tragedy. No one who had not known
+that Duchess could appreciate the terror which the expression of her
+countenance inspired in the Countess.
+
+Madame de Lansac was tall, and her features led people to say, “That
+must have been a handsome woman!” She coated her cheeks so thickly with
+rouge that the wrinkles were scarcely visible; but her eyes, far from
+gaining a factitious brilliancy from this strong carmine, looked all
+the more dim. She wore a vast quantity of diamonds, and dressed with
+sufficient taste not to make herself ridiculous. Her sharp nose promised
+epigram. A well-fitted set of teeth preserved a smile of such irony as
+recalled that of Voltaire. At the same time, the exquisite politeness of
+her manners so effectually softened the mischievous twist in her mind,
+that it was impossible to accuse her of spitefulness.
+
+The old woman’s eyes lighted up, and a triumphant glance, seconded by a
+smile, which said, “I promised you as much!” shot across the room,
+and brought a blush of hope to the pale cheeks of the young creature
+languishing under the great chandelier. The alliance between Madame
+de Lansac and the stranger could not escape the practised eye of the
+Comtesse de Vaudremont, who scented a mystery, and was determined to
+penetrate it.
+
+At this instant the Baron de la Roche-Hugon, after questioning all the
+dowagers without success as to the blue lady’s name, applied in
+despair to the Comtesse de Gondreville, from whom he reached only this
+unsatisfactory reply, “A lady whom the ‘ancient’ Duchesse de Lansac
+introduced to me.”
+
+Turning by chance towards the armchair occupied by the old lady, the
+lawyer intercepted the glance of intelligence she sent to the stranger;
+and although he had for some time been on bad terms with her, he
+determined to speak to her. The “ancient” Duchess, seeing the jaunty
+Baron prowling round her chair, smiled with sardonic irony, and looked
+at Madame de Vaudremont with an expression that made Montcornet laugh.
+
+“If the old witch affects to be friendly,” thought the Baron, “she is
+certainly going to play me some spiteful trick.--Madame,” he said, “you
+have, I am told, undertaken the charge of a very precious treasure.”
+
+“Do you take me for a dragon?” said the old lady. “But of whom are you
+speaking?” she added, with a sweetness which revived Martial’s hopes.
+
+“Of that little lady, unknown to all, whom the jealousy of all these
+coquettes has imprisoned in that corner. You, no doubt, know her
+family?”
+
+“Yes,” said the Duchess. “But what concern have you with a provincial
+heiress, married some time since, a woman of good birth, whom you none
+of you know, you men; she goes nowhere.”
+
+“Why does not she dance, she is such a pretty creature?--May we conclude
+a treaty of peace? If you will vouchsafe to tell me all I want to
+know, I promise you that a petition for the restitution of the woods of
+Navarreins by the Commissioners of Crown Lands shall be strongly urged
+on the Emperor.”
+
+The younger branch of the house of Navarreins bears quarterly with the
+arms of Navarreins those of Lansac, namely, azure, and argent party per
+pale raguly, between six spear-heads in pale, and the old lady’s liaison
+with Louis XV. had earned her husband the title of duke by royal patent.
+Now, as the Navarreins had not yet resettled in France, it was sheer
+trickery that the young lawyer thus proposed to the old lady by
+suggesting to her that she should petition for an estate belonging to
+the elder branch of the family.
+
+“Monsieur,” said the old woman with deceptive gravity, “bring the
+Comtesse de Vaudremont across to me. I promise you that I will reveal
+to her the mystery of the interesting unknown. You see, every man in
+the room has reached as great a curiosity as your own. All eyes are
+involuntarily turned towards the corner where my protegee has so
+modestly placed herself; she is reaping all the homage the women wished
+to deprive her of. Happy the man she chooses for her partner!” She
+interrupted herself, fixing her eyes on Madame de Vaudremont with one of
+those looks which plainly say, “We are talking of you.”--Then she added,
+“I imagine you would rather learn the stranger’s name from the lips of
+your handsome Countess than from mine.”
+
+There was such marked defiance in the Duchess’ attitude that Madame de
+Vaudremont rose, came up to her, and took the chair Martial placed for
+her; then without noticing him she said, “I can guess, madame, that you
+are talking of me; but I admit my want of perspicacity; I do not know
+whether it is for good or evil.”
+
+Madame de Lansac pressed the young woman’s pretty hand in her own dry
+and wrinkled fingers, and answered in a low, compassionate tone, “Poor
+child!”
+
+The women looked at each other. Madame de Vaudremont understood that
+Martial was in the way, and dismissed him, saying with an imperious
+expression, “Leave us.”
+
+The Baron, ill-pleased at seeing the Countess under the spell of the
+dangerous sibyl who had drawn her to her side gave one of those looks
+which a man can give--potent over a blinded heart, but simply ridiculous
+in the eyes of a woman who is beginning to criticise the man who has
+attracted her.
+
+“Do you think you can play the Emperor?” said Madame de Vaudremont,
+turning three-quarters of her face to fix an ironical sidelong gaze on
+the lawyer.
+
+Martial was too much a man of the world, and had too much wit and
+acumen, to risk breaking with a woman who was in favor at Court, and
+whom the Emperor wished to see married. He counted, too, on the jealousy
+he intended to provoke in her as the surest means of discovering the
+secret of her coolness, and withdrew all the more willingly, because at
+this moment a new quadrille was putting everybody in motion.
+
+With an air of making room for the dancing, the Baron leaned back
+against the marble slab of a console, folded his arms, and stood
+absorbed in watching the two ladies talking. From time to time he
+followed the glances which both frequently directed to the stranger.
+Then, comparing the Countess with the new beauty, made so attractive
+by a touch of mystery, the Baron fell a prey to the detestable
+self-interest common to adventurous lady-killers; he hesitated between a
+fortune within his grasp and the indulgence of his caprice. The blaze
+of light gave such strong relief to his anxious and sullen face, against
+the hangings of white silk moreen brushed by his black hair, that he
+might have been compared to an evil genius. Even from a distance more
+than one observer no doubt said to himself, “There is another poor
+wretch who seems to be enjoying himself!”
+
+The Colonel, meanwhile, with one shoulder leaning lightly against the
+side-post of the doorway between the ballroom and the cardroom, could
+laugh undetected under his ample moustache; it amused him to look on at
+the turmoil of the dance; he could see a hundred pretty heads turning
+about in obedience to the figures; he could read in some faces, as
+in those of the Countess and his friend Martial, the secrets of their
+agitation; and then, looking round, he wondered what connection there
+could be between the gloomy looks of the Comte de Soulanges, still
+seated on the sofa, and the plaintive expression of the fair unknown,
+on whose features the joys of hope and the anguish of involuntary dread
+were alternately legible. Montcornet stood like the king of the feast.
+In this moving picture he saw a complete presentment of the world, and
+he laughed at it as he found himself the object of inviting smiles from
+a hundred beautiful and elegant women. A Colonel of the Imperial Guard,
+a position equal to that of a Brigadier-General, was undoubtedly one of
+the best matches in the army.
+
+It was now nearly midnight. The conversation, the gambling, the dancing,
+the flirtations, interests, petty rivalries, and scheming had
+all reached the pitch of ardor which makes a young man exclaim
+involuntarily, “A fine ball!”
+
+“My sweet little angel,” said Madame de Lansac to the Countess, “you are
+now at an age when in my day I made many mistakes. Seeing you are just
+now enduring a thousand deaths, it occurred to me that I might give you
+some charitable advice. To go wrong at two-and-twenty means spoiling
+your future; is it not tearing the gown you must wear? My dear, it is
+not much later that we learn to go about in it without crumpling it. Go
+on, sweetheart, making clever enemies, and friends who have no sense
+of conduct, and you will see what a pleasant life you will some day be
+leading!”
+
+“Oh, madame, it is very hard for a woman to be happy, do not you think?”
+ the Countess eagerly exclaimed.
+
+“My child, at your age you must learn to choose between pleasure and
+happiness. You want to marry Martial, who is not fool enough to make a
+good husband, nor passionate enough to remain a lover. He is in debt,
+my dear; he is the man to run through your fortune; still, that would be
+nothing if he could make you happy.--Do not you see how aged he is? The
+man must have been ill; he is making the most of what is left him. In
+three years he will be a wreck. Then he will be ambitious; perhaps he
+may succeed. I do not think so.--What is he? A man of intrigue, who
+may have the business faculty to perfection, and be able to gossip
+agreeably; but he is too presumptuous to have any sterling merit; he
+will not go far. Besides--only look at him. Is it not written on his
+brow that, at this very moment, what he sees in you is not a young and
+pretty woman, but the two million francs you possess? He does not love
+you, my dear; he is reckoning you up as if you were an investment. If
+you are bent on marrying, find an older man who has an assured position
+and is half-way on his career. A widow’s marriage ought not to be a
+trivial love affair. Is a mouse to be caught a second time in the same
+trap? A new alliance ought now to be a good speculation on your part,
+and in marrying again you ought at least to have a hope of being some
+day addressed as Madame la Marechale!”
+
+As she spoke, both women naturally fixed their eyes on Colonel
+Montcornet’s handsome face.
+
+“If you would rather play the delicate part of a flirt and not marry
+again,” the Duchess went on, with blunt good-nature; “well! my
+poor child, you, better than any woman, will know how to raise the
+storm-clouds and disperse them again. But, I beseech you, never make it
+your pleasure to disturb the peace of families, to destroy unions, and
+ruin the happiness of happy wives. I, my dear, have played that perilous
+game. Dear heaven! for a triumph of vanity some poor virtuous soul is
+murdered--for there really are virtuous women, child,--and we may make
+ourselves mortally hated. I learned, a little too late, that, as the
+Duc d’Albe once said, one salmon is worth a thousand frogs! A genuine
+affection certainly brings a thousand times more happiness than the
+transient passions we may inspire.--Well, I came here on purpose to
+preach to you; yes, you are the cause of my appearance in this house,
+which stinks of the lower class. Have I not just seen actors here?
+Formerly, my dear, we received them in our boudoir; but in the
+drawing-room--never!--Why do you look at me with so much amazement?
+Listen to me. If you want to play with men, do not try to wring the
+hearts of any but those whose life is not yet settled, who have no
+duties to fulfil; the others do not forgive us for the errors that
+have made them happy. Profit by this maxim, founded on my long
+experience.--That luckless Soulanges, for instance, whose head you have
+turned, whom you have intoxicated for these fifteen months past, God
+knows how! Do you know at what you have struck?--At his whole life. He
+has been married these two years; he is worshiped by a charming wife,
+whom he loves, but neglects; she lives in tears and embittered silence.
+Soulanges has had hours of remorse more terrible than his pleasure has
+been sweet. And you, you artful little thing, have deserted him.--Well,
+come and see your work.”
+
+The old lady took Madame de Vaudremont’s hand, and they rose.
+
+“There,” said Madame de Lansac, and her eyes showed her the stranger,
+sitting pale and tremulous under the glare of the candles, “that is my
+grandniece, the Comtesse de Soulanges; to-day she yielded at last to my
+persuasion, and consented to leave the sorrowful room, where the sight
+of her child gives her but little consolation. You see her? You think
+her charming? Then imagine, dear Beauty, what she must have been when
+happiness and love shed their glory on that face now blighted.”
+
+The Countess looked away in silence, and seemed lost in sad reflections.
+
+The Duchess led her to the door into the card-room; then, after looking
+round the room as if in search of some one--“And there is Soulanges!”
+ she said in deep tones.
+
+The Countess shuddered as she saw, in the least brilliantly lighted
+corner, the pale, set face of Soulanges stretched in an easy-chair. The
+indifference of his attitude and the rigidity of his brow betrayed his
+suffering. The players passed him to and fro, without paying any more
+attention to him than if he had been dead. The picture of the wife in
+tears, and the dejected, morose husband, separated in the midst of
+this festivity like the two halves of a tree blasted by lightning, had
+perhaps a prophetic significance for the Countess. She dreaded lest she
+here saw an image of the revenges the future might have in store for
+her. Her heart was not yet so dried up that the feeling and generosity
+were entirely excluded, and she pressed the Duchess’ hand, while
+thanking her by one of those smiles which have a certain childlike
+grace.
+
+“My dear child,” the old lady said in her ear, “remember henceforth that
+we are just as capable of repelling a man’s attentions as of attracting
+them.”
+
+“She is yours if you are not a simpleton.” These words were whispered
+into Colonel Montcornet’s ear by Madame de Lansac, while the handsome
+Countess was still absorbed in compassion at the sight of Soulanges, for
+she still loved him truly enough to wish to restore him to happiness,
+and was promising herself in her own mind that she would exert the
+irresistible power her charms still had over him to make him return to
+his wife.
+
+“Oh! I will talk to him!” said she to Madame de Lansac.
+
+“Do nothing of the kind, my dear!” cried the old lady, as she went
+back to her armchair. “Choose a good husband, and shut your door to my
+nephew. Believe me, my child, a wife cannot accept her husband’s heart
+as the gift of another woman; she is a hundred times happier in the
+belief that she has reconquered it. By bringing my niece here I
+believe I have given her an excellent chance of regaining her husband’s
+affection. All the assistance I need of you is to play the Colonel.” She
+pointed to the Baron’s friend, and the Countess smiled.
+
+“Well, madame, do you at last know the name of the unknown?” asked
+Martial, with an air of pique, to the Countess when he saw her alone.
+
+“Yes,” said Madame de Vaudremont, looking him in the face.
+
+Her features expressed as much roguery as fun. The smile which gave life
+to her lips and cheeks, the liquid brightness of her eyes, were like
+the will-o’-the-wisp which leads travelers astray. Martial, who believed
+that she still loved him, assumed the coquetting graces in which a man
+is so ready to lull himself in the presence of the woman he loves. He
+said with a fatuous air:
+
+“And will you be annoyed with me if I seem to attach great importance to
+your telling me that name?”
+
+“Will you be annoyed with me,” answered Madame de Vaudremont, “if a
+remnant of affection prevents my telling you; and if I forbid you to
+make the smallest advances to that young lady? It would be at the risk
+of your life perhaps.”
+
+“To lose your good graces, madame, would be worse than to lose my life.”
+
+“Martial,” said the Countess severely, “she is Madame de Soulanges. Her
+husband would blow your brains out--if, indeed, you have any----”
+
+“Ha! ha!” laughed the coxcomb. “What! the Colonel can leave the man
+in peace who has robbed him of your love, and then would fight for his
+wife! What a subversion of principles!--I beg of you to allow me to
+dance with the little lady. You will then be able to judge how
+little love that heart of ice could feel for you; for, if the Colonel
+disapproves of my dancing with his wife after allowing me to----”
+
+“But she loves her husband.”
+
+“A still further obstacle that I shall have the pleasure of conquering.”
+
+“But she is married.”
+
+“A whimsical objection!”
+
+“Ah!” said the Countess, with a bitter smile, “you punish us alike for
+our faults and our repentance!”
+
+“Do not be angry!” exclaimed Martial eagerly. “Oh, forgive me, I beseech
+you. There, I will think no more of Madame de Soulanges.”
+
+“You deserve that I should send you to her.”
+
+“I am off then,” said the Baron, laughing, “and I shall return more
+devoted to you than ever. You will see that the prettiest woman in the
+world cannot capture the heart that is yours.”
+
+“That is to say, that you want to win Colonel Montcornet’s horse?”
+
+“Ah! Traitor!” said he, threatening his friend with his finger. The
+Colonel smiled and joined them; the Baron gave him the seat near the
+Countess, saying to her with a sardonic accent:
+
+“Here, madame, is a man who boasted that he could win your good graces
+in one evening.”
+
+He went away, thinking himself clever to have piqued the Countess’ pride
+and done Montcornet an ill turn; but, in spite of his habitual keenness,
+he had not appreciated the irony underlying Madame de Vaudremont’s
+speech, and did not perceive that she had come as far to meet his friend
+as his friend towards her, though both were unconscious of it.
+
+At that moment when the lawyer went fluttering up to the candelabrum by
+which Madame de Soulanges sat, pale, timid, and apparently alive only
+in her eyes, her husband came to the door of the ballroom, his eyes
+flashing with anger. The old Duchess, watchful of everything, flew
+to her nephew, begged him to give her his arm and find her carriage,
+affecting to be mortally bored, and hoping thus to prevent a vexatious
+outbreak. Before going she fired a singular glance of intelligence at
+her niece, indicating the enterprising knight who was about to address
+her, and this signal seemed to say, “There he is, avenge yourself!”
+
+Madame de Vaudremont caught these looks of the aunt and niece; a sudden
+light dawned on her mind; she was frightened lest she was the dupe of
+this old woman, so cunning and so practised in intrigue.
+
+“That perfidious Duchess,” said she to herself, “has perhaps been
+amusing herself by preaching morality to me while playing me some
+spiteful trick of her own.”
+
+At this thought Madame de Vaudremont’s pride was perhaps more roused
+than her curiosity to disentangle the thread of this intrigue. In the
+absorption of mind to which she was a prey she was no longer mistress
+of herself. The Colonel, interpreting to his own advantage the
+embarrassment evident in the Countess’ manner and speech, became more
+ardent and pressing. The old blase diplomates, amusing themselves by
+watching the play of faces, had never found so many intrigues at once
+to watch or guess at. The passions agitating the two couples were to be
+seen with variations at every step in the crowded rooms, and reflected
+with different shades in other countenances. The spectacle of so many
+vivid passions, of all these lovers’ quarrels, these pleasing revenges,
+these cruel favors, these flaming glances, of all this ardent life
+diffused around them, only made them feel their impotence more keenly.
+
+At last the Baron had found a seat by Madame de Soulanges. His eyes
+stole a long look at her neck, as fresh as dew and as fragrant as field
+flowers. He admired close at hand the beauty which had amazed him from
+afar. He could see a small, well-shod foot, and measure with his eye
+a slender and graceful shape. At that time women wore their sash tied
+close under the bosom, in imitation of Greek statues, a pitiless fashion
+for those whose bust was faulty. As he cast furtive glances at the
+Countess’ figure, Martial was enchanted with its perfection.
+
+“You have not danced once this evening, madame,” said he in soft and
+flattering tones. “Not, I should suppose, for lack of a partner?”
+
+“I never go to parties; I am quite unknown,” replied Madame de Soulanges
+coldly, not having understood the look by which her aunt had just
+conveyed to her that she was to attract the Baron.
+
+Martial, to give himself countenance, twisted the diamond he wore on his
+left hand; the rainbow fires of the gem seemed to flash a sudden light
+on the young Countess’ mind; she blushed and looked at the Baron with an
+undefinable expression.
+
+“Do you like dancing?” asked the Provencal, to reopen the conversation.
+
+“Yes, very much, monsieur.”
+
+At this strange reply their eyes met. The young man, surprised by the
+earnest accent, which aroused a vague hope in his heart, had suddenly
+questioned the lady’s eyes.
+
+“Then, madame, am I not overbold in offering myself to be your partner
+for the next quadrille?”
+
+Artless confusion colored the Countess’ white cheeks.
+
+“But, monsieur, I have already refused one partner--a military man----”
+
+“Was it that tall cavalry colonel whom you see over there?”
+
+“Precisely so.”
+
+“Oh! he is a friend of mine; feel no alarm. Will you grant me the favor
+I dare hope for?”
+
+“Yes, monsieur.”
+
+Her tone betrayed an emotion so new and so deep that the lawyer’s
+world-worn soul was touched. He was overcome by shyness like a
+schoolboy’s, lost his confidence, and his southern brain caught fire;
+he tried to talk, but his phrases struck him as graceless in comparison
+with Madame de Soulanges’ bright and subtle replies. It was lucky for
+him that the quadrille was forming. Standing by his beautiful partner,
+he felt more at ease. To many men dancing is a phase of being; they
+think that they can more powerfully influence the heart of woman by
+displaying the graces of their bodies than by their intellect. Martial
+wished, no doubt, at this moment to put forth all his most effective
+seductions, to judge by the pretentiousness of his movements and
+gestures.
+
+He led his conquest to the quadrille in which the most brilliant
+women in the room made it a point of chimerical importance to dance in
+preference to any other. While the orchestra played the introductory
+bars to the first figure, the Baron felt it an incredible gratification
+to his pride to perceive, as he reviewed the ladies forming the lines of
+that formidable square, that Madame de Soulanges’ dress might challenge
+that even of Madame de Vaudremont, who, by a chance not perhaps
+unsought, was standing with Montcornet _vis-a-vis_ to himself and the
+lady in blue. All eyes were for a moment turned on Madame de Soulanges;
+a flattering murmur showed that she was the subject of every man’s
+conversation with his partner. Looks of admiration and envy centered
+on her, with so much eagerness that the young creature, abashed by a
+triumph she seemed to disclaim, modestly looked down, blushed, and was
+all the more charming. When she raised her white eyelids it was to look
+at her ravished partner as though she wished to transfer the glory of
+this admiration to him, and to say that she cared more for his than for
+all the rest. She threw her innocence into her vanity; or rather she
+seemed to give herself up to the guileless admiration which is the
+beginning of love, with the good faith found only in youthful hearts. As
+she danced, the lookers-on might easily believe that she displayed
+her grace for Martial alone; and though she was modest, and new to the
+trickery of the ballroom, she knew as well as the most accomplished
+coquette how to raise her eyes to his at the right moment and drop their
+lids with assumed modesty.
+
+When the movement of a new figure, invented by a dancer named Trenis,
+and named after him, brought Martial face to face with the Colonel--“I
+have won your horse,” said he, laughing.
+
+“Yes, but you have lost eighty thousand francs a year!” retorted
+Montcornet, glancing at Madame de Vaudremont.
+
+“What do I care?” replied Martial. “Madame de Soulanges is worth
+millions!”
+
+At the end of the quadrille more than one whisper was poured into
+more than one ear. The less pretty women made moral speeches to their
+partners, commenting on the budding liaison between Martial and the
+Comtesse de Soulanges. The handsomest wondered at her easy surrender.
+The men could not understand such luck as the Baron’s, not regarding him
+as particularly fascinating. A few indulgent women said it was not
+fair to judge the Countess too hastily; young wives would be in a very
+hapless plight if an expressive look or a few graceful dancing steps
+were enough to compromise a woman.
+
+Martial alone knew the extent of his happiness. During the last figure,
+when the ladies had to form the _moulinet_, his fingers clasped those of
+the Countess, and he fancied that, through the thin perfumed kid of her
+gloves, the young wife’s grasp responded to his amorous appeal.
+
+“Madame,” said he, as the quadrille ended, “do not go back to the odious
+corner where you have been burying your face and your dress until now.
+Is admiration the only benefit you can obtain from the jewels that
+adorn your white neck and beautifully dressed hair? Come and take a turn
+through the rooms to enjoy the scene and yourself.”
+
+Madame de Soulanges yielded to her seducer, who thought she would be
+his all the more surely if he could only show her off. Side by side they
+walked two or three times amid the groups who crowded the rooms. The
+Comtesse de Soulanges, evidently uneasy, paused for an instant at each
+door before entering, only doing so after stretching her neck to look at
+all the men there. This alarm, which crowned the Baron’s satisfaction,
+did not seem to be removed till he said to her, “Make yourself easy;
+_he_ is not here.”
+
+They thus made their way to an immense picture gallery in a wing of the
+mansion, where their eyes could feast in anticipation on the splendid
+display of a collation prepared for three hundred persons. As supper was
+about to begin, Martial led the Countess to an oval boudoir looking on
+to the garden, where the rarest flowers and a few shrubs made a scented
+bower under bright blue hangings. The murmurs of the festivity here
+died away. The Countess, at first startled, refused firmly to follow the
+young man; but, glancing in a mirror, she no doubt assured herself that
+they could be seen, for she seated herself on an ottoman with a fairly
+good grace.
+
+“This room is charming,” said she, admiring the sky-blue hangings looped
+with pearls.
+
+“All here is love and delight!” said the Baron, with deep emotion.
+
+In the mysterious light which prevailed he looked at the Countess,
+and detected on her gently agitated face an expression of uneasiness,
+modesty, and eagerness which enchanted him. The young lady smiled, and
+this smile seemed to put an end to the struggle of feeling surging in
+her heart; in the most insinuating way she took her adorer’s left hand,
+and drew from his finger the ring on which she had fixed her eyes.
+
+“What a fine diamond!” she exclaimed in the artless tone of a young girl
+betraying the incitement of a first temptation.
+
+Martial, troubled by the Countess’ involuntary but intoxicating touch,
+like a caress, as she drew off the ring, looked at her with eyes as
+glittering as the gem.
+
+“Wear it,” he said, “in memory of this hour, and for the love of----”
+
+She was looking at him with such rapture that he did not end the
+sentence; he kissed her hand.
+
+“You give it me?” she said, looking much astonished.
+
+“I wish I had the whole world to offer you!”
+
+“You are not joking?” she went on, in a voice husky with too great
+satisfaction.
+
+“Will you accept only my diamond?”
+
+“You will never take it back?” she insisted.
+
+“Never.”
+
+She put the ring on her finger. Martial, confident of coming happiness,
+was about to put his hand round her waist, but she suddenly rose, and
+said in a clear voice, without any agitation:
+
+“I accept the diamond, monsieur, with the less scruple because it
+belongs to me.”
+
+The Baron was speechless.
+
+“Monsieur de Soulanges took it lately from my dressing-table, and told
+me he had lost it.”
+
+“You are mistaken, madame,” said Martial, nettled. “It was given me by
+Madame de Vaudremont.”
+
+“Precisely so,” she said with a smile. “My husband borrowed this ring of
+me, he gave it to her, she made it a present to you; my ring has made a
+little journey, that is all. This ring will perhaps tell me all I do not
+know, and teach me the secret of always pleasing.--Monsieur,” she went
+on, “if it had not been my own, you may be sure I should not have risked
+paying so dear for it; for a young woman, it is said, is in danger with
+you. But, you see,” and she touched a spring within the ring, “here is
+M. de Soulanges’ hair.”
+
+She fled into the crowded rooms so swiftly, that it seemed useless to
+try to follow her; besides, Martial, utterly confounded, was in no mood
+to carry the adventure further. The Countess’ laugh found an echo in the
+boudoir, where the young coxcomb now perceived, between two shrubs, the
+Colonel and Madame de Vaudremont, both laughing heartily.
+
+“Will you have my horse, to ride after your prize?” said the Colonel.
+
+The Baron took the banter poured upon him by Madame de Vaudremont and
+Montcornet with a good grace, which secured their silence as to the
+events of the evening, when his friend exchanged his charger for a rich
+and pretty young wife.
+
+
+
+As the Comtesse de Soulanges drove across Paris from the Chausee d’Antin
+to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where she lived, her soul was prey to
+many alarms. Before leaving the Hotel Gondreville she went through all
+the rooms, but found neither her aunt nor her husband, who had gone away
+without her. Frightful suspicions then tortured her ingenuous mind. A
+silent witness of her husbands’ torments since the day when Madame de
+Vaudremont had chained him to her car, she had confidently hoped that
+repentance would ere long restore her husband to her. It was with
+unspeakable repugnance that she had consented to the scheme plotted by
+her aunt, Madame de Lansac, and at this moment she feared she had made a
+mistake.
+
+The evening’s experience had saddened her innocent soul. Alarmed at
+first by the Count’s look of suffering and dejection, she had become
+more so on seeing her rival’s beauty, and the corruption of society
+had gripped her heart. As she crossed the Pont Royal she threw away the
+desecrated hair at the back of the diamond, given to her once as a token
+of the purest affection. She wept as she remembered the bitter grief to
+which she had so long been a victim, and shuddered more than once as she
+reflected that the duty of a woman, who wishes for peace in her home,
+compels her to bury sufferings so keen as hers at the bottom of her
+heart, and without a complaint.
+
+“Alas!” thought she, “what can women do when they do not love? What is
+the fount of their indulgence? I cannot believe that, as my aunt tells
+me, reason is all-sufficient to maintain them in such devotion.”
+
+She was still sighing when her man-servant let down the handsome
+carriage-step down which she flew into the hall of her house. She rushed
+precipitately upstairs, and when she reached her room was startled by
+seeing her husband sitting by the fire.
+
+“How long is it, my dear, since you have gone to balls without telling
+me beforehand?” he asked in a broken voice. “You must know that a woman
+is always out of place without her husband. You compromised yourself
+strangely by remaining in the dark corner where you had ensconced
+yourself.”
+
+“Oh, my dear, good Leon,” said she in a coaxing tone, “I could not
+resist the happiness of seeing you without your seeing me. My aunt took
+me to this ball, and I was very happy there!”
+
+This speech disarmed the Count’s looks of their assumed severity, for
+he had been blaming himself while dreading his wife’s return, no doubt
+fully informed at the ball of an infidelity he had hoped to hide from
+her; and, as is the way of lovers conscious of their guilt, he tried, by
+being the first to find fault, to escape her just anger. Happy in seeing
+her husband smile, and in finding him at this hour in a room whither
+of late he had come more rarely, the Countess looked at him so tenderly
+that she blushed and cast down her eyes. Her clemency enraptured
+Soulanges all the more, because this scene followed on the misery he had
+endured at the ball. He seized his wife’s hand and kissed it gratefully.
+Is not gratitude often a part of love?
+
+“Hortense, what is that on your finger that has hurt my lip so much?”
+ asked he, laughing.
+
+“It is my diamond which you said you had lost, and which I have found.”
+
+
+
+General Montcornet did not marry Madame de Vaudremont, in spite of the
+mutual understanding in which they had lived for a few minutes, for she
+was one of the victims of the terrible fire which sealed the fame of
+the ball given by the Austrian ambassador on the occasion of Napoleon’s
+marriage with the daughter of the Emperor Joseph II.
+
+
+JULY, 1829.
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDUM
+
+The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
+
+     Bonaparte, Napoleon
+       The Vendetta
+       The Gondreville Mystery
+       Colonel Chabert
+       The Seamy Side of History
+       A Woman of Thirty
+
+     Gondreville, Malin, Comte de
+       The Gondreville Mystery
+       A Start in Life
+       The Member for Arcis
+
+     Keller, Francois
+       Cesar Birotteau
+       Eugenie Grandet
+       The Government Clerks
+       The Member for Arcis
+
+     Keller, Madame Francois
+       The Member for Arcis
+       The Thirteen
+
+     La Roche-Hugon, Martial de
+       The Peasantry
+       A Daughter of Eve
+       The Member for Arcis
+       The Middle Classes
+       Cousin Betty
+
+     Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de
+       Lost Illusions
+       A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
+       Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
+       The Peasantry
+       A Man of Business
+       Cousin Betty
+
+     Murat, Joachim, Prince
+       The Vendetta
+       The Gondreville Mystery
+       Colonel Chabert
+       The Country Doctor
+
+     Soulanges, Comte Leon de
+       The Peasantry
+
+     Soulanges, Comtesse Hortense de
+       The Thirteen
+       The Peasantry
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Domestic Peace, by Honore de Balzac
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1411 ***