initial commit of ebook 3946HEADmain

2 files changed, 10538 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/im33b10.txt b/old/im33b10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39c6e52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/im33b10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10538 @@
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors by Octave Feuillet, entire
+#33 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy
+#4 in our series by Octave Feuillet
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.
+
+Please do not remove this.
+
+This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
+Do not change or edit it without written permission.  The words
+are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
+need about what they can legally do with the texts.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below, including for donations.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
+
+
+
+Title: Monsieur de Camors, entire
+
+Author: Octave Feuillet
+
+Release Date: April, 2003  [Etext #3946]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 09/12/01]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors by Octave Feuillet, entire
+************This file should be named im33b10.txt or im33b10.zip************
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, im33b11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, im33b10a.txt
+
+This etext was produced by David Widger  <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
+the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03
+or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of July 12, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho,
+Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
+Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North
+Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota,
+Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia,
+Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising
+will begin in the additional states.  Please feel
+free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork
+to legally request donations in all 50 states.  If
+your state is not listed and you would like to know
+if we have added it since the list you have, just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in
+states where we are not yet registered, we know
+of no prohibition against accepting donations
+from donors in these states who approach us with
+an offer to donate.
+
+
+International donations are accepted,
+but we don't know ANYTHING about how
+to make them tax-deductible, or
+even if they CAN be made deductible,
+and don't have the staff to handle it
+even if there are ways.
+
+All donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541,
+and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal
+Revenue Service (IRS).  Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum
+extent permitted by law.  As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the
+additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Example command-line FTP session:
+
+ftp ftp.ibiblio.org
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc.
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart
+and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.]
+[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales
+of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or
+software or any other related product without express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+MONSIEUR DE CAMORS
+
+By OCTAVE FEUILLET
+
+
+With a Preface by MAXIME DU CAMP, of the French Academy
+
+
+
+
+OCTAVE FEUILLET
+
+OCTAVE FEUILLET'S works abound with rare qualities, forming a harmonious
+ensemble; they also exhibit great observation and knowledge of humanity,
+and through all of them runs an incomparable and distinctive charm.  He
+will always be considered the leader of the idealistic school in the
+nineteenth century.  It is now fifteen years since his death, and the
+judgment of posterity is that he had a great imagination, linked to great
+analytical power and insight; that his style is neat, pure, and fine, and
+at the same time brilliant and concise.  He unites suppleness with force,
+he combines grace with vigor.
+
+Octave Feuillet was born at Saint-Lo (Manche), August 11, 1821, his
+father occupying the post of Secretary-General of the Prefecture de la
+Manche.  Pupil at the Lycee Louis le Grand, he received many prizes, and
+was entered for the law.  But he became early attracted to literature,
+and like many of the writers at that period attached himself to the
+"romantic school."  He collaborated with Alexander Dumas pere and with
+Paul Bocage.  It can not now be ascertained what share Feuillet may have
+had in any of the countless tales of the elder Dumas.  Under his own name
+he published the novels 'Onesta' and 'Alix', in 1846, his first romances.
+He then commenced writing for the stage.  We mention 'Echec et Mat'
+(Odeon, 1846); 'Palma, ou la Nuit du Vendredi-Saint' (Porte St.  Martin,
+1847); 'La Vieillesse de Richelieu' (Theatre Francais, 1848); 'York'
+(Palais Royal, 1852).  Some of them are written in collaboration with
+Paul Bocage.  They are dramas of the Dumas type, conventional, not
+without cleverness, but making no lasting mark.
+
+Realizing this, Feuillet halted, pondered, abruptly changed front, and
+began to follow in the footsteps of Alfred de Musset.  'La Grise' (1854),
+'Le Village' (1856), 'Dalila' (1857), 'Le Cheveu Blanc', and other plays
+obtained great success, partly in the Gymnase, partly in the Comedie
+Francaise.  In these works Feuillet revealed himself as an analyst of
+feminine character, as one who had spied out all their secrets, and could
+pour balm on all their wounds.  'Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre'
+(Vaudeville, 1858) is probably the best known of all his later dramas;
+it was, of course, adapted for the stage from his romance, and is well
+known to the American public through Lester Wallack and Pierrepont
+Edwards.  'Tentation' was produced in the year 1860, also well known in
+this country under the title 'Led Astray'; then followed 'Montjoye'
+(1863), etc.  The influence of Alfred de Musset is henceforth less
+perceptible.  Feuillet now became a follower of Dumas fils, especially so
+in 'La Belle au Bois Dormant' (Vaudeville, 1865); 'Le Cas de Conscience
+(Theatre Francais, 1867); 'Julie' (Theatre Francais 1869).  These met
+with success, and are still in the repertoire of the Comedie Francaise.
+
+As a romancer, Feuillet occupies a high place.  For thirty years he was
+the representative of a noble and tender genre, and was preeminently the
+favorite novelist of the brilliant society of the Second Empire.  Women
+literally devoured him, and his feminine public has always remained
+faithful to him.  He is the advocate of morality and of the aristocracy
+of birth and feeling, though under this disguise he involves his heroes
+and heroines in highly romantic complications, whose outcome is often for
+a time in doubt.  Yet as the accredited painter of the Faubourg Saint-
+Germain he contributed an essential element to the development of
+realistic fiction.  No one has rendered so well as he the high-strung,
+neuropathic women of the upper class, who neither understand themselves
+nor are wholly comprehensible to others.  In 'Monsieur de Camors',
+crowned by the Academy, he has yielded to the demands of a stricter
+realism.  Especially after the fall of the Empire had removed a powerful
+motive for gilding the vices of aristocratic society, he painted its hard
+and selfish qualities as none of his contemporaries could have done.
+Octave Feuillet was elected to the Academie Francaise in 1862 to succeed
+Scribe.  He died December 29, 1890.
+                                   MAXIME DU CAMP
+                              de l'Acadamie Francaise.
+
+
+
+
+
+MONSIEUR DE CAMORS
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH"
+
+Near eleven o'clock, one evening in the month of May, a man about fifty
+years of age, well formed, and of noble carriage, stepped from a coupe in
+the courtyard of a small hotel in the Rue Barbet-de-Jouy.  He ascended,
+with the walk of a master, the steps leading to the entrance, to the hall
+where several servants awaited him.  One of them followed him into an
+elegant study on the first floor, which communicated with a handsome
+bedroom, separated from it by a curtained arch.  The valet arranged the
+fire, raised the lamps in both rooms, and was about to retire, when his
+master spoke:
+
+"Has my son returned home?"
+
+"No, Monsieur le Comte.  Monsieur is not ill?"
+
+"Ill!  Why?"
+
+"Because Monsieur le Comte is so pale."
+
+"Ah! It is only a slight cold I have taken this evening on the banks of
+the lake."
+
+"Will Monsieur require anything?"
+
+"Nothing," replied the Count briefly, and the servant retired.  Left
+alone, his master approached a cabinet curiously carved in the Italian
+style, and took from it a long flat ebony box.
+
+This contained two pistols.  He loaded them with great care, adjusting
+the caps by pressing them lightly to the nipple with his thumb.  That
+done, he lighted a cigar, and for half an hour the muffled beat of his
+regular tread sounded on the carpet of the gallery.  He finished his
+cigar, paused a moment in deep thought, and then entered the adjoining
+room, taking the pistols with him.
+
+This room, like the other, was furnished in a style of severe elegance,
+relieved by tasteful ornament.  It showed some pictures by famous
+masters, statues, bronzes, and rare carvings in ivory.  The Count threw a
+glance of singular interest round the interior of this chamber, which was
+his own--on the familiar objects--on the sombre hangings--on the bed,
+prepared for sleep.  Then he turned toward a table, placed in a recess of
+the window, laid the pistols upon it, and dropping his head in his hands,
+meditated deeply many minutes.  Suddenly he raised his head, and wrote
+rapidly as follows:
+
+     "TO MY SON:
+
+     "Life wearies me, my son, and I shall relinquish it.  The true
+     superiority of man over the inert or passive creatures that surround
+     him, lies in his power to free himself, at will, from those,
+     pernicious servitudes which are termed the laws of nature.  Man,
+     if he will it, need not grow old: the lion must.  Reflect, my son,
+     upon this text, for all human power lies in it.
+
+     "Science asserts and demonstrates it.  Man, intelligent and free,
+     is an animal wholly unpremeditated upon this planet.  Produced by
+     unexpected combinations and haphazard transformations, in the midst
+     of a general subordination of matter, he figures as a dissonance and
+     a revolt!
+
+     "Nature has engendered without having conceived him.  The result is
+     as if a turkey-hen had unconsciously hatched the egg of an eagle.
+     Terrified at the monster, she has sought to control it, and has
+     overloaded it with instincts, commonly called duties, and police
+     regulations known as religion.  Each one of these shackles broken,
+     each one of these servitudes overthrown, marks a step toward the
+     thorough emancipation of humanity.
+
+     "I must say to you, however, that I die in the faith of my century,
+     believing in matter uncreated, all-powerful, and eternal--the Nature
+     of the ancients.  There have been in all ages philosophers who have
+     had conceptions of the truth.  But ripe to-day, it has become the
+     common property of all who are strong enough to stand it--for, in
+     sooth, this latest religion of humanity is food fit only for the
+     strong.  It carries sadness with it, for it isolates man; but it
+     also involves grandeur, making man absolutely free, or, as it were,
+     a very god.  It leaves him no actual duties except to himself, and
+     it opens a superb field to one of brain and courage.
+
+     "The masses still remain, and must ever remain, submissive under the
+     yoke of old, dead religions, and under the tyranny of instincts.
+     There will still be seen very much the same condition of things as
+     at present in Paris; a society the brain of which is atheistic, and
+     the heart religious.  And at bottom there will be no more belief in
+     Christ than in Jupiter; nevertheless, churches will continue to be
+     built mechanically.  There are no longer even Deists; for the old
+     chimera of a personal, moral God-witness, sanction, and judge,--is
+     virtually extinct; and yet hardly a word is said, or a line written,
+     or a gesture made, in public or private life, which does not ever
+     affirm that chimera.  This may have its uses perchance, but it is
+     nevertheless despicable.  Slip forth from the common herd, my son,
+     think for yourself, and write your own catechism upon a virgin page.
+
+     "As for myself, my life has been a failure, because I was born many
+     years too soon.  As yet the earth and the heavens were heaped up and
+     cumbered with ruins, and people did not see.  Science, moreover, was
+     relatively still in its infancy.  And, besides, I retained the
+     prejudices and the repugnance to the doctrines of the new world that
+     belonged to my name.  I was unable to comprehend that there was
+     anything better to be done than childishly to pout at the conqueror;
+     that is, I could not recognize that his weapons were good, and that
+     I should seize and destroy him with them.  In short, for want of a
+     definite principle of action I have drifted at random, my life
+     without plan--I have been a mere trivial man of pleasure.
+
+     "Your life shall be more complete, if you will only follow my
+     advice.
+
+     "What, indeed, may not a man of this age become if he have the good
+     sense and energy to conform his life rigidly to his belief!
+
+     "I merely state the question, you must solve it; I can leave you
+     only some cursory ideas, which I am satisfied are just, and upon
+     which you may meditate at your leisure.  Only for fools or the weak
+     does materialism become a debasing dogma; assuredly, in its code
+     there are none of those precepts of ordinary morals which our
+     fathers entitled virtue; but I do find there a grand word which may
+     well counterbalance many others, that is to say, Honor, self-esteem!
+     Unquestionably a materialist may not be a saint; but he can be a
+     gentleman, which is something.  You have happy gifts, my son, and I
+     know of but one duty that you have in the world--that of developing
+     those gifts to the utmost, and through them to enjoy life
+     unsparingly.  Therefore, without scruple, use woman for your
+     pleasure, man for your advancement; but under no circumstances do
+     anything ignoble.
+
+     "In order that ennui shall not drive you, like myself, prematurely
+     from the world so soon as the season for pleasure shall have ended,
+     you should leave the emotions of ambition and of public life for the
+     gratification of your riper age.  Do not enter into any engagements
+     with the reigning government, and reserve for yourself to hear its
+     eulogium made by those who will have subverted it.  That is the
+     French fashion.  Each generation must have its own prey.  You will
+     soon feel the impulse of the coming generation.  Prepare yourself,
+     from afar, to take the lead in it.
+
+     "In politics, my son, you are not ignorant that we all take our
+     principles from our temperament.  The bilious are demagogues, the
+     sanguine, democrats, the nervous, aristocrats.  You are both
+     sanguine and nervous, an excellent constitution, for it gives you a
+     choice.  You may, for example, be an aristocrat in regard to
+     yourself personally, and, at the same time, a democrat in relation
+     to others; and in that you will not be exceptional.
+
+     "Make yourself master of every question likely to interest your
+     contemporaries, but do not become absorbed in any yourself.  In
+     reality, all principles are indifferent--true or false according to
+     the hour and circumstance.  Ideas are mere instruments with which
+     you should learn to play seasonably, so as to sway men.  In that
+     path, likewise, you will have associates.
+
+     "Know, my son, that having attained my age, weary of all else, you
+     will have need of strong sensations.  The sanguinary diversions of
+     revolution will then be for you the same as a love-affair at twenty.
+
+     "But I am fatigued, my son, and shall recapitulate.  To be loved by
+     women, to be feared by men, to be as impassive and as imperturbable
+     as a god before the tears of the one and the blood of the other, and
+     to end in a whirlwind--such has been the lot in which I have failed,
+     but which, nevertheless, I bequeath to you.  With your great
+     faculties you, however, are capable of accomplishing it, unless
+     indeed you should fail through some ingrained weakness of the heart
+     that I have noticed in you, and which, doubtless, you have imbibed
+     with your mother's milk.
+
+     "So long as man shall be born of woman, there will be something
+     faulty and incomplete in his character.  In fine, strive to relieve
+     yourself from all thraldom, from all natural instincts, affections,
+     and sympathies as from so many fetters upon your liberty, your
+     strength.
+
+     "Do not marry unless some superior interest shall impel you to do
+     so.  In that event, have no children.
+
+     "Have no intimate friends.  Caesar having grown old, had a friend.
+     It was Brutus!
+
+     "Contempt for men is the beginning of wisdom.
+
+     "Change somewhat your style of fencing, it is altogether too open,
+     my son.  Do not get angry.  Rarely laugh, and never weep.  Adieu.
+
+                                             "CAMORS."
+
+
+The feeble rays of dawn had passed through the slats of the blinds.
+The matin birds began their song in the chestnut-tree near the window.
+M. de Camors raised his head and listened in an absent mood to the sound
+which astonished him.  Seeing that it was daybreak, he folded in some
+haste the pages he had just finished, pressed his seal upon the envelope,
+and addressed it, "For the Comte Louis de Camors."  Then he rose.
+
+M. de Camors was a great lover of art, and had carefully preserved a
+magnificent ivory carving of the sixteenth century, which had belonged to
+his wife.  It was a Christ the pallid white relieved by a medallion of
+dark velvet.
+
+His eye, meeting this pale, sad image, was attracted to it for a moment
+with strange fascination.  Then he smiled bitterly, seized one of the
+pistols with a firm hand and pressed it to his temple.
+
+A shot resounded through the house; the fall of a heavy body shook the
+floor-fragments of brains strewed the carpet.  The Comte de Camors had
+plunged into eternity!
+
+His last will was clenched in his hand.
+
+To whom was this document addressed?  Upon what kind of soil will these
+seeds fall?
+
+At this time Louis de Camors was twenty-seven years old.  His mother had
+died young.  It did not appear that she had been particularly happy with
+her husband; and her son barely remembered her as a young woman, pretty
+and pale, and frequently weeping, who used to sing him to sleep in a low,
+sweet voice.  He had been brought up chiefly by his father's mistress,
+who was known as the Vicomtesse d'Oilly, a widow, and a rather good sort
+of woman.  Her natural sensibility, and the laxity of morals then
+reigning at Paris, permitted her to occupy herself at the same time with
+the happiness of the father and the education of the son.  When the
+father deserted her after a time, he left her the child, to comfort her
+somewhat by this mark of confidence and affection.  She took him out
+three times a week; she dressed him and combed him; she fondled him and
+took him with her to church, and made him play with a handsome Spaniard,
+who had been for some time her secretary.  Besides, she neglected no
+opportunity of inculcating precepts of sound morality.  Thus the child,
+being surprised at seeing her one evening press a kiss upon the forehead
+of her secretary, cried out, with the blunt candor of his age:
+
+"Why, Madame, do you kiss a gentleman who is not your husband?"
+
+"Because, my dear," replied the Countess, "our good Lord commands us to
+be charitable and affectionate to the poor, the infirm, and the exile;
+and Monsieur Perez is an exile."
+
+Louis de Camors merited better care, for he was a generous-hearted child;
+and his comrades of the college of Louis-le-Grand always remembered the
+warm-heartedness and natural grace which made them forgive his successes
+during the week, and his varnished boots and lilac gloves on Sunday.
+Toward the close of his college course, he became particularly attached
+to a poor bursar, by name Lescande, who excelled in mathematics,
+but who was very ungraceful, awkwardly shy and timid, with a painful
+sensitiveness to the peculiarities of his person.  He was nicknamed
+"Wolfhead," from the refractory nature of his hair; but the elegant
+Camors stopped the scoffers by protecting the young man with his
+friendship.  Lescande felt this deeply, and adored his friend, to whom he
+opened the inmost recesses of his heart, letting out some important
+secrets.
+
+He loved a very young girl who was his cousin, but was as poor as
+himself.  Still it was a providential thing for him that she was poor,
+otherwise he never should have dared to aspire to her.  It was a sad
+occurrence that had first thrown Lescande with his cousin--the loss of
+her father, who was chief of one of the Departments of State.
+
+After his death she lived with her mother in very straitened
+circumstances; and Lescande, on occasion of his last visit, found her
+with soiled cuffs.  Immediately after he received the following note:
+
+     "Pardon me, dear cousin!  Pardon my not wearing white cuffs.  But I
+     must tell you that we can change our cuffs--my mother and I--only
+     three times a week.  As to her, one would never discover it.  She is
+     neat as a bird.  I also try to be; but, alas! when I practise the
+     piano, my cuffs rub.  After this explanation, my good Theodore, I
+     hope you will love me as before.
+                                             "JULIETTE."
+
+
+Lescande wept over this note.  Luckily he had his prospects as an
+architect; and Juliette had promised to wait for him ten years, by which
+time he would either be dead, or living deliciously in a humble house
+with his cousin.  He showed the note, and unfolded his plans to Camors.
+"This is the only ambition I have, or which I can have," added Lescande.
+"You are different.  You are born for great things."
+
+"Listen, my old Lescande," replied Camors, who had just passed his
+rhetoric examination in triumph.  "I do not know but that my destiny
+may be ordinary; but I am sure my heart can never be.  There I feel
+transports--passions, which give me sometimes great joy, sometimes
+inexpressible suffering.  I burn to discover a world--to save a nation--
+to love a queen!  I understand nothing but great ambitions and noble
+alliances, and as for sentimental love, it troubles me but little.  My
+activity pants for a nobler and a wider field!
+
+"I intend to attach myself to one of the great social parties, political
+or religious, that agitate the world at this era.  Which one I know not
+yet, for my opinions are not very fixed.  But as soon as I leave college
+I shall devote myself to seeking the truth.  And truth is easily found.
+I shall read all the newspapers.
+
+"Besides, Paris is an intellectual highway, so brilliantly lighted it is
+only necessary to open one's eyes and have good faith and independence,
+to find the true road.
+
+"And I am in excellent case for this, for though born a gentleman, I have
+no prejudices.  My father, who is himself very enlightened and very
+liberal, leaves me free.  I have an uncle who is a Republican; an aunt
+who is a Legitimist--and what is still more, a saint; and another uncle
+who is a Conservative.  It is not vanity that leads me to speak of these
+things; but only a desire to show you that, having a foot in all parties,
+I am quite willing to compare them dispassionately and make a good
+choice.  Once master of the holy truth, you may be sure, dear old
+Lescande, I shall serve it unto death--with my tongue, with my pen, and
+with my sword!"
+
+Such sentiments as these, pronounced with sincere emotion and accompanied
+by a warm clasp of the hand, drew tears from the old Lescande, otherwise
+called Wolfhead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FRUIT FROM THE HOTBED OF PARIS
+
+Early one morning, about eight years after these high resolves, Louis de
+Camors rode out from the 'porte-cochere' of the small hotel he had
+occupied with his father.
+
+Nothing could be gayer than Paris was that morning, at that charming
+golden hour of the day when the world seems peopled only with good and
+generous spirits who love one another.  Paris does not pique herself on
+her generosity; but she still takes to herself at this charming hour an
+air of innocence, cheerfulness, and amiable cordiality.
+
+The little carts with bells, that pass one another rapidly, make one
+believe the country is covered with roses.  The cries of old Paris cut
+with their sharp notes the deep murmur of a great city just awaking.
+
+You see the jolly concierges sweeping the white footpaths; half-dressed
+merchants taking down their shutters with great noise; and groups of
+ostlers, in Scotch caps, smoking and fraternizing on the hotel steps.
+
+You hear the questions of the sociable neighborhood; the news proper to
+awakening; speculations on the weather bandied across from door to door,
+with much interest.
+
+Young milliners, a little late, walk briskly toward town with elastic
+step, making now a short pause before a shop just opened; again taking
+wing like a bee just scenting a flower.
+
+Even the dead in this gay Paris morning seem to go gayly to the cemetery,
+with their jovial coachmen grinning and nodding as they pass.
+
+Superbly aloof from these agreeable impressions, Louis de Camors,
+a little pale, with half-closed eyes and a cigar between his teeth,
+rode into the Rue de Bourgogne at a walk, broke into a canter on the
+Champs Elysees, and galloped thence to the Bois.  After a brisk run, he
+returned by chance through the Porte Maillot, then not nearly so thickly
+inhabited as it is to-day.  Already, however, a few pretty houses, with
+green lawns in front, peeped out from the bushes of lilac and clematis.
+Before the green railings of one of these a gentleman played hoop with a
+very young, blond-haired child.  His age belonged in that uncertain area
+which may range from twenty-five to forty.  He wore a white cravat,
+spotless as snow; and two triangles of short, thick beard, cut like the
+boxwood at Versailles, ornamented his cheeks.  If Camors saw this
+personage he did not honor him with the slightest notice.  He was,
+notwithstanding, his former comrade Lescande, who had been lost sight of
+for several years by his warmest college friend.  Lescande, however,
+whose memory seemed better, felt his heart leap with joy at the majestic
+appearance of the young cavalier who approached him.  He made a movement
+to rush forward; a smile covered his good-natured face, but it ended in
+a grimace.  Evidently he had been forgotten.  Camors, now not more than
+a couple of feet from him, was passing on, and his handsome countenance
+gave not the slightest sign of emotion.  Suddenly, without changing
+a single line of his face, he drew rein, took the cigar from his lips,
+and said, in a tranquil voice:
+
+"Hello!  You have no longer a wolf head!"
+
+"Ha!  Then you know me?"  cried Lescande.
+
+"Know you?  Why not?"
+
+"I thought--I was afraid--on account of my beard--"
+
+"Bah!  your beard does not change you--except that it becomes you.
+But what are you doing here?"
+
+"Doing here!  Why, my dear friend, I am at home here.  Dismount, I pray
+you, and come into my house."
+
+"Well, why not?"  replied Camors, with the same voice and manner of
+supreme indifference; and, throwing his bridle to the servant who
+followed him, he passed through the gardengate, led, supported, caressed
+by the trembling hand of Lescande.
+
+The garden was small, but beautifully tended and full of rare plants.
+At the end, a small villa, in the Italian style, showed its graceful
+porch.
+
+"Ah, that is pretty!"  exclaimed Camors, at last.
+
+"And you recognize my plan, Number Three, do you not?"  asked Lescande,
+eagerly.
+
+"Your plan Number Three?  Ah, yes, perfectly," replied Camors, absently.
+"And your pretty little cousin--is she within?"
+
+"She is there, my dear friend," answered Lescande, in a low voice--and he
+pointed to the closed shutters of a large window of a balcony surmounting
+the veranda.  "She is there; and this is our son."
+
+Camors let his hand pass listlessly over the child's hair.  "The deuce!"
+he said; "but you have not wasted time.  And you are happy, my good
+fellow?"
+
+"So happy, my dear friend, that I am sometimes uneasy, for the good God
+is too kind to me.  It is true, though, I had to work very hard.  For
+instance, I passed two years in Spain--in the mountains of that infernal
+country.  There I built a fairy palace for the Marquis of Buena-Vista,
+a great nobleman, who had seen my plan at the Exhibition and was
+delighted with it.  This was the beginning of my fortune; but you must
+not imagine that my profession alone has enriched me so quickly.  I made
+some successful speculations--some unheard of chances in lands; and, I
+beg you to believe, honestly, too.  Still, I am not a millionaire; but
+you know I had nothing, and my wife less; now, my house paid for, we have
+ten thousand francs' income left.  It is not a fortune for us, living in
+this style; but I still work and keep good courage, and my Juliette is
+happy in her paradise!"
+
+"She wears no more soiled cuffs, then?"  said Camors.
+
+"I warrant she does not!  Indeed, she has a slight tendency to luxury--
+like all women, you know.  But I am delighted to see you remember so well
+our college follies.  I also, through all my distractions, never forgot
+you a moment.  I even had a foolish idea of asking you to my wedding,
+only I did not dare.  You are so brilliant, so petted, with your
+establishment and your racers.  My wife knows you very well; in fact, we
+have talked of you a hundred thousand times.  Since she patronizes the
+turf and subscribes for 'The Sport', she says to me, 'Your friend's horse
+has won again'; and in our family circle we rejoice over your triumphs."
+
+A flush tinged the cheek of Camors as he answered, quietly, "You are
+really too good."
+
+They walked a moment in silence over the gravel path bordered by grass,
+before Lescande spoke again.
+
+"And yourself, dear friend, I hope that you also are happy."
+
+"I--happy!"  Camors seemed a little astonished.  "My happiness is simple
+enough, but I believe it is unclouded.  I rise in the morning, ride to
+the Bois, thence to the club, go to the Bois again, and then back to the
+club.  If there is a first representation at any theatre, I wish to see
+it.  Thus, last evening they gave a new piece which was really exquisite.
+There was a song in it, beginning:
+
+                        'He was a woodpecker,
+                         A little woodpecker,
+                         A young woodpecker--'
+
+and the chorus imitated the cry of the woodpecker!  Well, it was
+charming, and the whole of Paris will sing that song with delight for a
+year.  I also shall do like the whole of Paris, and I shall be happy."
+
+"Good heavens! my friend," laughed Lescande, "and that suffices you for
+happiness?"
+
+"That and--the principles of 'eighty-nine," replied Camors, lighting a
+fresh cigar from the old one.
+
+Here their dialogue was broken by the fresh voice of a woman calling from
+the blinds of the balcony--
+
+"Is that you, Theodore?"
+
+Camors raised his eyes and saw a white hand, resting on the slats of the
+blind, bathed in sunlight.
+
+"That is my wife.  Conceal yourself!"  cried Lescande, briskly; and he
+pushed Camors behind a clump of catalpas, as he turned to the balcony and
+lightly answered:
+
+"Yes, my dear; do you wish anything?"
+
+"Maxime is with you?"
+
+"Yes, mother.  I am here," cried the child.  "It is a beautiful morning.
+Are you quite well?"
+
+"I hardly know.  I have slept too long, I believe."  She opened the
+shutters, and, shading her eyes from the glare with her hand, appeared on
+the balcony.
+
+She was in the flower of youth, slight, supple, and graceful, and
+appeared, in her ample morning-gown of blue cashmere, plumper and taller
+than she really was.  Bands of the same color interlaced, in the Greek
+fashion, her chestnut hair--which nature, art, and the night had
+dishevelled--waved and curled to admiration on her small head.
+
+She rested her elbows on the railing, yawned, showing her white teeth,
+and looking at her husband, asked:
+
+"Why do you look so stupid?"
+
+At the instant she observed Camors--whom the interest of the moment had
+withdrawn from his concealment--gave a startled cry, gathered up her
+skirts, and retired within the room.
+
+Since leaving college up to this hour, Louis de Camors had never formed
+any great opinion of the Juliet who had taken Lescande as her Romeo.  He
+experienced a flash of agreeable surprise on discovering that his friend
+was more happy in that respect than he had supposed.
+
+"I am about to be scolded, my friend," said Lescande, with a hearty
+laugh, "and you also must stay for your share.  You will stay and
+breakfast with us?"
+
+Camors hesitated; then said, hastily, "No, no!  Impossible!  I have an
+engagement which I must keep."
+
+Notwithstanding Camors's unwillingness, Lescande detained him until he
+had extorted a promise to come and dine with them--that is, with him,
+his wife, and his mother-in-law, Madame Mursois--on the following
+Tuesday.  This acceptance left a cloud on the spirit of Camors until the
+appointed day.  Besides abhorring family dinners, he objected to being
+reminded of the scene of the balcony.  The indiscreet kindness of
+Lescande both touched and irritated him; for he knew he should play but a
+silly part near this pretty woman.  He felt sure she was a coquette,
+notwithstanding which, the recollections of his youth and the character
+of her husband should make her sacred to him.  So he was not in the most
+agreeable frame of mind when he stepped out of his dog-cart, that Tuesday
+evening, before the little villa of the Avenue Maillot.
+
+At his reception by Madame Lescande and her mother he took heart a
+little.  They appeared to him what they were, two honest-hearted women,
+surrounded by luxury and elegance.  The mother--an ex-beauty--had been
+left a widow when very young, and to this time had avoided any stain on
+her character.  With them, innate delicacy held the place of those solid
+principles so little tolerated by French society.  Like a few other women
+of society, Madame had the quality of virtue just as ermine has the
+quality of whiteness.  Vice was not so repugnant to her as an evil as it
+was as a blemish.  Her daughter had received from her those instincts of
+chastity which are oftener than we imagine hidden under the appearance of
+pride.  But these amiable women had one unfortunate caprice, not uncommon
+at this day among Parisians of their position.  Although rather clever,
+they bowed down, with the adoration of bourgeoises, before that
+aristocracy, more or less pure, that paraded up and down the Champs
+Elysees, in the theatres, at the race-course, and on the most frequented
+promenades, its frivolous affairs and rival vanities.
+
+Virtuous themselves, they read with interest the daintiest bits of
+scandal and the most equivocal adventures that took place among the
+elite.  It was their happiness and their glory to learn the smallest
+details of the high life of Paris; to follow its feasts, speak in its
+slang, copy its toilets, and read its favorite books.  So that if not the
+rose, they could at least be near the rose and become impregnated with
+her colors and her perfumes.  Such apparent familiarity heightened them
+singularly in their own estimation and in that of their associates.
+
+Now, although Camors did not yet occupy that bright spot in the heaven of
+fashion which was surely to be his one day, still he could here pass for
+a demigod, and as such inspire Madame Lescande and her mother with a
+sentiment of most violent curiosity.  His early intimacy with Lescande
+had always connected a peculiar interest with his name: and they knew the
+names of his horses--most likely knew the names of his mistresses.
+
+So it required all their natural tact to conceal from their guest the
+flutter of their nerves caused by his sacred presence; but they did
+succeed, and so well that Camors was slightly piqued.  If not a coxcomb,
+he was at least young: he was accustomed to please: he knew the Princess
+de Clam-Goritz had lately applied to him her learned definition of an
+agreeable man--"He is charming, for one always feels in danger near him!"
+
+Consequently, it seemed a little strange to him that the simple mother of
+the simple wife of simple Lescande should be able to bear his radiance
+with such calmness; and this brought him out of his premeditated reserve.
+
+He took the trouble to be irresistible--not to Madame Lescande, to whom
+he was studiously respectful--but to Madame Mursois.  The whole evening
+he scattered around the mother the social epigrams intended to dazzle the
+daughter; Lescande meanwhile sitting with his mouth open, delighted with
+the success of his old schoolfellow.
+
+Next afternoon, Camors, returning from his ride in the Bois, by chance
+passed the Avenue Maillot.  Madame Lescande was embroidering on the
+balcony, by chance, and returned his salute over her tapestry.  He
+remarked, too, that she saluted very gracefully, by a slight inclination
+of the head, followed by a slight movement of her symmetrical, sloping
+shoulders.
+
+When he called upon her two or three days after--as was only his duty--
+Camors reflected on a strong resolution he had made to keep very cool,
+and to expatiate to Madame Lescande only on her husband's virtues.  This
+pious resolve had an unfortunate effect; for Madame, whose virtue had
+been piqued, had also reflected; and while an obtrusive devotion had not
+failed to frighten her, this course only reassured her.  So she gave up
+without restraint to the pleasure of receiving in her boudoir one of the
+brightest stars from the heaven of her dreams.
+
+It was now May, and at the races of La Marche--to take place the
+following Sunday--Camors was to be one of the riders.  Madame Mursois and
+her daughter prevailed upon Lescande to take them, while Camors completed
+their happiness by admitting them to the weighing-stand.  Further, when
+they walked past the judge's stand, Madame Mursois, to whom he gave his
+arm, had the delight of being escorted in public by a cavalier in an
+orange jacket and topboots.  Lescande and his wife followed in the wake
+of the radiant mother-in-law, partaking of her ecstasy.
+
+These agreeable relations continued for several weeks, without seeming to
+change their character.  One day Camors would seat himself by the lady,
+before the palace of the Exhibition, and initiate her into the mysteries
+of all the fashionables who passed before them.  Another time he would
+drop into their box at the opera, deign to remain there during an act or
+two, and correct their as yet incomplete views of the morals of the
+ballet.  But in all these interviews he held toward Madame Lescande the
+language and manner of a brother: perhaps because he secretly persisted
+in his delicate resolve; perhaps because he was not ignorant that every
+road leads to Rome--and one as surely as another.
+
+Madame Lescande reassured herself more and more; and feeling it
+unnecessary to be on her guard, as at first, thought she might permit
+herself a little levity.  No woman is flattered at being loved only as
+a sister.
+
+Camors, a little disquieted by the course things were taking, made some
+slight effort to divert it.  But, although men in fencing wish to spare
+their adversaries, sometimes they find habit too strong for them, and
+lunge home in spite of themselves.  Besides, he began to be really
+interested in Madame Lescande--in her coquettish ways, at once artful and
+simple, provoking and timid, suggestive and reticent--in short, charming.
+
+The same evening that M. de Camors, the elder, returned to his home bent
+on suicide, his son, passing up the Avenue Maillot, was stopped by
+Lescande on the threshold of his villa.
+
+"My friend," said the latter, "as you are here you can do me a great
+favor.  A telegram calls me suddenly to Melun--I must go on the instant.
+The ladies will be so lonely, pray stay and dine with them!  I can't tell
+what the deuce ails my wife.  She has been weeping all day over her
+tapestry; my mother-in-law has a headache.  Your presence will cheer
+them.  So stay, I beg you."
+
+Camors refused, hesitated, made objections, and consented.  He sent back
+his horse, and his friend presented him to the ladies, whom the presence
+of the unexpected guest seemed to cheer a little.  Lescande stepped into
+his carriage and departed, after receiving from his wife an embrace more
+fervent than usual.
+
+The dinner was gay.  In the atmosphere was that subtle suggestion of
+coming danger of which both Camors and Madame Lescande felt the
+exhilarating influence.  Their excitement, as yet innocent, employed
+itself in those lively sallies--those brilliant combats at the barriers
+--that ever precede the more serious conflict.  About nine o'clock the
+headache of Madame Mursois--perhaps owing to the cigar they had allowed
+Camors--became more violent.  She declared she could endure it no longer,
+and must retire to her chamber.  Camors wished to withdraw, but his
+carriage had not yet arrived and Madame Mursois insisted that he should
+wait for it.
+
+"Let my daughter amuse you with a little music until then," she added.
+
+Left alone with her guest, the younger lady seemed embarrassed.  "What
+shall I play for you?"  she asked, in a constrained voice, taking her
+seat at the piano.
+
+"Oh! anything--play a waltz," answered Camors, absently.
+
+The waltz finished, an awkward silence ensued.  To break it she arose
+hesitatingly; then clasping her hands together exclaimed, "It seems to me
+there is a storm.  Do you not think so?"  She approached the window,
+opened it, and stepped out on the balcony.  In a second Camors was at her
+side.
+
+The night was beautifully clear.  Before them stretched the sombre shadow
+of the wood, while nearer trembling rays of moonlight slept upon the
+lawn.
+
+How still all was!  Their trembling hands met and for a moment did not
+separate.
+
+"Juliette!" whispered the young man, in a low, broken voice.  She
+shuddered, repelled the arm that Camors passed round her, and hastily
+reentered the room.
+
+"Leave me, I pray you!"  she cried, with an impetuous gesture of her
+hand, as she sank upon the sofa, and buried her face in her hands.
+
+Of course Camors did not obey.  He seated himself by her.
+
+In a little while Juliette awoke from her trance; but she awoke a lost
+woman!
+
+How bitter was that awakening!  She measured at a first glance the depth
+of the awful abyss into which she had suddenly plunged.  Her husband, her
+mother, her infant, whirled like spectres in the mad chaos of her brain.
+
+Sensible of the anguish of an irreparable wrong, she rose, passed her
+hand vacantly across her brow, and muttering, "Oh, God!  oh, God!" peered
+vainly into the dark for light--hope--refuge!  There was none!
+
+Her tortured soul cast herself utterly on that of her lover.  She turned
+her swimming eyes on him and said:
+
+"How you must despise me!"
+
+Camors, half kneeling on the carpet near her, kissed her hand
+indifferently and half raised his shoulders in sign of denial.  "Is it
+not so?"  she repeated.  "Answer me, Louis."
+
+His face wore a strange, cruel smile--"Do not insist on an answer, I pray
+you," he said.
+
+"Then I am right?  You do despise me?"
+
+Camors turned himself abruptly full toward her, looked straight in her
+face, and said, in a cold, hard voice, "I do!"
+
+To this cruel speech the poor child replied by a wild cry that seemed to
+rend her, while her eyes dilated as if under the influence of strong
+poison.  Camors strode across the room, then returned and stood by her as
+he said, in a quick, violent tone:
+
+"You think I am brutal?  Perhaps I am, but that can matter little now.
+After the irreparable wrong I have done you, there is one service--and
+only one which I can now render you.  I do it now, and tell you the
+truth.  Understand me clearly; women who fall do not judge themselves
+more harshly than their accomplices judge them.  For myself, what would
+you have me think of you?
+
+"To his misfortune and my shame, I have known your husband since his
+boyhood.  There is not a drop of blood in his veins that does not throb
+for you; there is not a thought of his day nor a dream of his night that
+is not yours; your every comfort comes from his sacrifices--your every
+joy from his exertion!  See what he is to you!
+
+"You have only seen my name in the journals; you have seen me ride by
+your window; I have talked a few times with you, and you yield to me in
+one moment the whole of his life with your own--the whole of his
+happiness with your own.
+
+"I tell you, woman, every man like me, who abuses your vanity and your
+weakness and afterward tells you he esteems you--lies!  And if after all
+you still believe he loves you, you do yourself fresh injury.  No: we
+soon learn to hate those irksome ties that become duties where we only
+sought pleasures; and the first effort after they are formed is to
+shatter them.
+
+"As for the rest: women like you are not made for unholy love like ours.
+Their charm is their purity, and losing that, they lose everything.  But
+it is a blessing to them to encounter one wretch, like myself, who cares
+to say--Forget me, forever!  Farewell!"
+
+He left her, passed from the room with rapid strides, and, slamming the
+door behind him, disappeared.  Madame Lescande, who had listened,
+motionless, and pale as marble, remained in the same lifeless attitude,
+her eyes fixed, her hands clenched--yearning from the depths of her heart
+that death would summon her.  Suddenly a singular noise, seeming to come
+from the next room, struck her ear.  It was only a convulsive sob, or
+violent and smothered laughter.  The wildest and most terrible ideas
+crowded to the mind of the unhappy woman; the foremost of them, that her
+husband had secretly returned, that he knew all--that his brain had given
+way, and that the laughter was the gibbering of his madness.
+
+Feeling her own brain begin to reel, she sprang from the sofa, and
+rushing to the door, threw it open.  The next apartment was the dining-
+room, dimly lighted by a hanging lamp.  There she saw Camors, crouched
+upon the floor, sobbing furiously and beating his forehead against a
+chair which he strained in a convulsive embrace.  Her tongue refused its
+office; she could find no word, but seating herself near him, gave way to
+her emotion, and wept silently.  He dragged himself nearer, seized the
+hem of her dress and covered it with kisses; his breast heaved
+tumultuously, his lips trembled and he gasped the almost inarticulate
+words, "Pardon!  Oh, pardon me!"
+
+This was all.  Then he rose suddenly, rushed from the house, and the
+instant after she heard the rolling of the wheels as his carriage whirled
+him away.
+
+If there were no morals and no remorse, French people would perhaps be
+happier.  But unfortunately it happens that a young woman, who believes
+in little, like Madame Lescande, and a young man who believes in nothing,
+like M. de Camors, can not have the pleasures of an independent code of
+morals without suffering cruelly afterward.
+
+A thousand old prejudices, which they think long since buried, start up
+suddenly in their consciences; and these revived scruples are nearly
+fatal to them.
+
+Camors rushed toward Paris at the greatest speed of his thoroughbred,
+Fitz-Aymon, awakening along the route, by his elegance and style,
+sentiments of envy which would have changed to pity were the wounds of
+the heart visible.  Bitter weariness, disgust of life and disgust for
+himself, were no new sensations to this young man; but he never had
+experienced them in such poignant intensity as at this cursed hour,
+when flying from the dishonored hearth of the friend of his boyhood.
+No action of his life had ever thrown such a flood of light on the depths
+of his infamy in doing such gross outrage to the friend of his purer
+days, to the dear confidant of the generous thoughts and proud
+aspirations of his youth.  He knew he had trampled all these under foot.
+Like Macbeth, he had not only murdered one asleep, but had murdered sleep
+itself.
+
+His reflections became insupportable.  He thought successively of
+becoming a monk, of enlisting as a soldier, and of getting drunk--ere he
+reached the corner of the Rue Royale and the Boulevard.  Chance favored
+his last design, for as he alighted in front of his club, he found
+himself face to face with a pale young man, who smiled as he extended his
+hand.  Camors recognized the Prince d'Errol.
+
+"The deuce!  You here, my Prince!  I thought you in Cairo."
+
+"I arrived only this morning."
+
+"Ah, then you are better?--Your chest?"
+
+"So--so."
+
+"Bah! you look perfectly well.  And isn't Cairo a strange place?"
+
+"Rather; but I really believe Providence has sent you to me."
+
+"You really think so, my Prince?  But why?"
+
+"Because--pshaw!  I'll tell you by-and-bye; but first I want to hear all
+about your quarrel."
+
+"What quarrel?"
+
+"Your duel for Sarah."
+
+"That is to say, against Sarah!"
+
+"Well, tell me all that passed; I heard of it only vaguely while abroad."
+
+"Well, I only strove to do a good action, and, according to custom, I was
+punished for it.  I heard it said that that little imbecile La Brede
+borrowed money from his little sister to lavish it upon that Sarah.
+This was so unnatural that you may believe it first disgusted, and then
+irritated me.  One day at the club I could not resist saying, 'You are an
+ass, La Bride, to ruin yourself--worse than that, to ruin your sister,
+for the sake of a snail, as little sympathetic as Sarah, a girl who
+always has a cold in her head, and who has already deceived you.'
+'Deceived me!' cried La Brede, waving his long arms.  'Deceived me!
+and with whom?'--'With me.'  As he knew I never lied, he panted for my
+life.  Luckily my life is a tough one."
+
+"You put him in bed for three months, I hear."
+
+"Almost as long as that, yes.  And now, my friend, do me a service.  I am
+a bear, a savage, a ghost!  Assist me to return to life.  Let us go and
+sup with some sprightly people whose virtue is extraordinary."
+
+"Agreed!  That is recommended by my physician."
+
+"From Cairo?  Nothing could be better, my Prince."
+
+Half an hour later Louis de Camors, the Prince d'Errol, and a half-dozen
+guests of both sexes, took possession of an apartment, the closed doors
+of which we must respect.
+
+Next morning, at gray dawn, the party was about to disperse; and at the
+moment a ragpicker, with a gray beard, was wandering up and down before
+the restaurant, raking with his hook in the refuse that awaited the
+public sweepers.  In closing his purse, with an unsteady hand, Camors let
+fall a shining louis d'or, which rolled into the mud on the sidewalk.
+The ragpicker looked up with a timid smile.
+
+"Ah!  Monsieur," he said, "what falls into the trench should belong to
+the soldier."
+
+"Pick it up with your teeth, then," answered Camors, laughing, "and it is
+yours."
+
+The man hesitated, flushed under his sunburned cheeks, and threw a look
+of deadly hatred upon the laughing group round him.  Then he knelt,
+buried his chest in the mire, and sprang up next moment with the coin
+clenched between his sharp white teeth.  The spectators applauded.  The
+chiffonnier smiled a dark smile, and turned away.
+
+"Hello, my friend!"  cried Camors, touching his arm, "would you like to
+earn five Louis?  If so, give me a knock-down blow.  That will give you
+pleasure and do me good."
+
+The man turned, looked him steadily in the eye, then suddenly dealt him
+such a blow in the face that he reeled against the opposite wall.  The
+young men standing by made a movement to fall upon the graybeard.
+
+"Let no one harm him!"  cried Camors.  "Here, my man, are your hundred
+francs."
+
+"Keep them," replied the other, "I am paid;" and walked away.
+
+"Bravo, Belisarius!"  laughed Camors.  "Faith, gentlemen, I do not know
+whether you agree with me, but I am really charmed with this little
+episode.  I must go dream upon it.  By-bye, young ladies!  Good-day,
+Prince!"
+
+An early cab was passing, he jumped in, and was driven rapidly to his
+hotel, on the Rue Babet-de-Jouy.
+
+The door of the courtyard was open, but being still under the influence
+of the wine he had drunk, he failed to notice a confused group of
+servants and neighbors standing before the stable-doors.  Upon seeing
+him, these people became suddenly silent, and exchanged looks of sympathy
+and compassion.  Camors occupied the second floor of the hotel; and
+ascending the stairs, found himself suddenly facing his father's valet.
+The man was very pale, and held a sealed paper, which he extended with a
+trembling hand.
+
+"What is it, Joseph?"  asked Camors.
+
+"A letter which--which Monsieur le Comte wrote for you before he left."
+
+"Before he left! my father is gone, then?  But--where--how?  What, the
+devil! why do you weep?"
+
+Unable to speak, the servant handed him the paper.  Camors seized it and
+tore it open.
+
+"Good God!  there is blood!  what is this!"  He read the first words--
+"My son, life is a burden to me.  I leave it--" and fell fainting to the
+floor.
+
+The poor lad loved his father, notwithstanding the past.
+
+They carried him to his chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DEBRIS FROM THE REVOLUTION
+
+De Camors, on leaving college had entered upon life with a heart swelling
+with the virtues of youth--confidence, enthusiasm, sympathy.  The
+horrible neglect of his early education had not corrupted in his veins
+those germs of weakness which, as his father declared, his mother's milk
+had deposited there; for that father, by shutting him up in a college to
+get rid of him for twelve years, had rendered him the greatest service in
+his power.
+
+Those classic prisons surely do good.  The healthy discipline of the
+school; the daily contact of young, fresh hearts; the long familiarity
+with the best works, powerful intellects, and great souls of the
+ancients--all these perhaps may not inspire a very rigid morality, but
+they do inspire a certain sentimental ideal of life and of duty which has
+its value.
+
+The vague heroism which Camors first conceived he brought away with him.
+He demanded nothing, as you may remember, but the practical formula for
+the time and country in which he was destined to live.  He found,
+doubtless, that the task he set himself was more difficult than he had
+imagined; that the truth to which he would devote himself--but which he
+must first draw from the bottom of its well--did not stand upon many
+compliments.  But he failed no preparation to serve her valiantly as a
+man might, as soon as she answered his appeal.  He had the advantage of
+several years of opposing to the excitements of his age and of an opulent
+life the austere meditations of the poor student.
+
+During that period of ardent, laborious youth, he faithfully shut himself
+up in libraries, attended public lectures, and gave himself a solid
+foundation of learning, which sometimes awakened surprise when discovered
+under the elegant frivolity of the gay turfman.  But while arming himself
+for the battle of life, he lost, little by little, what was more
+essential than the best weapons-true courage.
+
+In proportion as he followed Truth day by day, she flew before and eluded
+him, taking, like an unpleasant vision, the form of the thousand-headed
+Chimera.
+
+About the middle of the last century, Paris was so covered with political
+and religious ruins, that the most piercing vision could scarcely
+distinguish the outlines of the fresh structures of the future.
+One could, see that everything was overthrown; but one could not see any
+power that was to raise the ruins.  Over the confused wrecks and remains
+of the Past, the powerful intellectual life of the Present-Progress--the
+collision of ideas--the flame of French wit, criticism and the sciences--
+threw a brilliant light, which, like the sun of earlier ages, illuminated
+the chaos without making it productive.  The phenomena of Life and of
+Death were commingled in one huge fermentation, in which everything
+decomposed and whence nothing seemed to spring up again.
+
+At no period of history, perhaps, has Truth been less simple, more
+enveloped in complications; for it seemed that all essential notions of
+humanity had been fused in a great furnace, and none had come out whole.
+
+The spectacle is grand; but it troubles profoundly all souls--or at least
+those that interest and curiosity do not suffice to fill; which is to
+say, nearly all.  To disengage from this bubbling chaos one pure
+religious moral, one positive social idea, one fixed political creed,
+were an enterprise worthy of the most sincere.  This should not be beyond
+the strength of a man of good intentions; and Louis de Camors might have
+accomplished the task had he been aided by better instruction and
+guidance.
+
+It is the common misfortune of those just entering life to find in it
+less than their ideal.  But in this respect Camors was born under a
+particularly unfortunate star, for he found in his surroundings--in his
+own family even--only the worst side of human nature; and, in some
+respects, of those very opinions to which he was tempted to adhere.
+
+The Camors were originally from Brittany, where they had held, in the
+eighteenth century, large possessions, particularly some extensive
+forests, which still bear their name.  The grandfather of Louis, the
+Comte Herve de Camors, had, on his return from the emigration, bought
+back a small part of the hereditary demesne.  There he established
+himself in the old-fashioned style, and nourished until his death
+incurable prejudices against the French Revolution and against Louis
+XVIII.
+
+Count Herve had four children, two boys and two girls, and, feeling it
+his duty to protest against the levelling influences of the Civil Code,
+he established during his life, by a legal subterfuge, a sort of entail
+in favor of his eldest son, Charles-Henri, to the prejudice of Robert-
+Sosthene, Eleanore-Jeanne and Louise-Elizabeth, his other heirs.
+Eleanore-Jeanne and Louise-Elizabeth accepted with apparent willingness
+the act that benefited their brother at their expense--notwithstanding
+which they never forgave him.  But Robert-Sosthene, who, in his position
+as representative of the younger branch, affected Liberal leanings and
+was besides loaded with debt, rebelled against the paternal procedure.
+He burned his visiting-cards, ornamented with the family crest and his
+name "Chevalier Lange d'Ardennes"--and had others printed, simply
+"Dardennes, junior (du Morbihan)."
+
+Of these he sent a specimen to his father, and from that hour became a
+declared Republican.
+
+There are people who attach themselves to a party by their virtues;
+others, again, by their vices.  No recognized political party exists
+which does not contain some true principle; which does not respond to
+some legitimate aspiration of human society.  At the same time, there is
+not one which can not serve as a pretext, as a refuge, and as a hope, for
+the basest passions of our nature.
+
+The most advanced portion of the Liberal party of France is composed of
+generous spirits, ardent and absolute, who torture a really elevated
+ideal; that of a society of manhood, constituted with a sort of
+philosophic perfection; her own mistress each day and each hour;
+delegating few of her powers, and yielding none; living, not without
+laws, but without rulers; and, in short, developing her activity, her
+well-being, her genius, with that fulness of justice, of independence,
+and of dignity, which republicanism alone gives to all and to each one.
+
+Every other system appears to them to preserve some of the slaveries and
+iniquities of former ages; and it also appears open to the suspicion of
+generating diverse interests--and often hostile ones--between the
+governors and the governed.  They claim for all that political system
+which, without doubt, holds humanity in the most esteem; and however one
+may despise the practical working of their theory, the grandeur of its
+principles can not be despised.
+
+They are in reality a proud race, great-hearted and high-spirited.  They
+have had in their age their heroes and their martyrs; but they have had,
+on the other hand, their hypocrites, their adventurers, and their
+radicals--their greatest enemies.
+
+Young Dardennes, to obtain grace for the equivocal origin of his
+convictions, placed himself in the front rank of these last.
+
+Until he left college Louis de Camors never knew his uncle, who had
+remained on bad terms with his father; but he entertained for him, in
+secret; an enthusiastic admiration, attributing to him all the virtues of
+that principle of which he seemed the exponent.
+
+The Republic of '48 soon died: his uncle was among the vanquished; and
+this, to the young man, had but an additional attraction.  Without his
+father's knowledge, he went to see him, as if on a pilgrimage to a holy
+shrine; and he was well received.
+
+He found his uncle exasperated--not so much against his enemies as
+against his own party, to which he attributed all the disasters of the
+cause.
+
+"They never can make revolutions with gloves on," he said in a solemn,
+dogmatic tone.  "The men of 'ninety-three did not wear them.  You can not
+make an omelette without first breaking the eggs.
+
+"The pioneers of the future should march on, axe in hand!
+
+"The chrysalis of the people is not hatched upon roses!
+
+"Liberty is a goddess who demands great holocausts.  Had they made a
+Reign of Terror in 'forty-eight, they would now be masters!"
+
+These high-flown maxims astonished Louis de Camors.  In his youthful
+simplicity he had an infinite respect for the men who had governed his
+country in her darkest hour; not more that they had given up power as
+poor as when they assumed it, than that they left it with their hands
+unstained with blood: To this praise--which will be accorded them in
+history, which redresses many contemporary injustices--he added a
+reproach which he could not reconcile with the strange regrets of his
+uncle.  He reproached them with not having more boldly separated the New
+Republic, in its management and minor details, from the memories of the
+old one.  Far from agreeing with his uncle that a revival of the horrors
+of 'ninety-three would have assured the triumph of the New Republic, he
+believed it had sunk under the bloody shadow of its predecessor.  He
+believed that, owing to this boasted Terror, France had been for
+centuries the only country in which the dangers of liberty outweighed its
+benefits.
+
+It is useless to dwell longer on the relations of Louis de Camors with
+his uncle Dardennes.  It is enough that he was doubtful and discouraged,
+and made the error of holding the cause responsible for the violence of
+its lesser apostles, and that he adopted the fatal error, too common in
+France at that period, of confounding progress with discord, liberty with
+license, and revolution with terrorism!
+
+The natural result of irritation and disenchantment on this ardent spirit
+was to swing it rapidly around to the opposite pole of opinion.  After
+all, Camors argued, his birth, his name, his family ties all pointed out
+his true course, which was to combat the cruel and despotic doctrines
+which he believed he detected under these democratic theories.  Another
+thing in the habitual language of his uncle also shocked and repelled
+him--the profession of an absolute atheism.  He had within him, in
+default of a formal creed, a fund of general belief and respect for holy
+things--that kind of religious sensibility which was shocked by impious
+cynicism.  Further he could not comprehend then, or ever afterward, how
+principles alone, without faith in some higher sanction, could sustain
+themselves by their own strength in the human conscience.
+
+God--or no principles!  This was the dilemma from which no German
+philosophy could rescue him.
+
+This reaction in his mind drew him closer to those other branches of his
+family which he had hitherto neglected.  His two aunts, living at Paris,
+had been compelled, in consequence of their small fortunes, to make some
+sacrifices to enter into the blessed state of matrimony.  The elder,
+Eleanore-Jeanne, had married, during her father's life, the Comte de la
+Roche-Jugan--a man long past fifty, but still well worthy of being loved.
+Nevertheless, his wife did not love him.  Their views on many essential
+points differed widely.  M. de la Roche-Jugan was one of those who had
+served the Government of the Restoration with an unshaken but hopeless
+devotion.  In his youth he had been attached to the person and to the
+ministry of the Duc de Richelieu; and he had preserved the memory of that
+illustrious man--of the elevated moderation of his sentiments--of the
+warmth of his patriotism and of his constancy.  He saw the pitfalls
+ahead, pointed them out to his prince--displeased him by so doing, but
+still followed his fortunes.  Once more retired to private life with but
+small means, he guarded his political principles rather like a religion
+than a hope.  His hopes, his vivacity, his love of right--all these he
+turned toward God.
+
+His piety, as enlightened as profound, ranked him among the choicest
+spirits who then endeavored to reconcile the national faith of the past
+with the inexorable liberty of thought of the present.  Like his
+colaborers in this work, he experienced only a mortal sadness under which
+he sank.  True, his wife contributed no little to hasten his end by the
+intemperance of her zeal and the acrimony of her bigotry.
+
+She had little heart and great pride, and made her God subserve her
+passions, as Dardennes made liberty subserve his malice.
+
+No sooner had she become a widow than she purified her salons.
+Thenceforth figured there only parishioners more orthodox than their
+bishops, French priests who denied Bossuet; consequently she believed
+that religion was saved in France.  Louis de Camors, admitted to this
+choice circle by title both of relative and convert, found there the
+devotion of Louis XI and the charity of Catherine de Medicis; and he
+there lost very soon the little faith that remained to him.
+
+He asked himself sadly whether there was no middle ground between Terror
+and Inquisition; whether in this world one must be a fanatic or nothing.
+He sought a middle course, possessing the force and cohesion of a party;
+but he sought in vain.  It seemed to him that the whole world of politics
+and religion rushed to extremes; and that what was not extreme was inert
+and indifferent--dragging out, day by day, an existence without faith and
+without principle.
+
+Thus at least appeared to him those whom the sad changes of his life
+showed him as types of modern politics.
+
+His younger aunt, Louise-Elizabeth, who enjoyed to the full all the
+pleasures of modern life, had already profited by her father's death to
+make a rich misalliance.  She married the Baron Tonnelier, whose father,
+although the son of a miller, had shown ability and honesty enough to
+fill high positions under the First Empire.
+
+The Baron Tonnelier had a large fortune, increasing every day by
+successful speculation.  In his youth he had been a good horseman,
+a Voltairian, and a Liberal.
+
+In time--though he remained a Voltairian--he renounced horsemanship,
+and Liberalism.  Although he was a simple deputy, he had a twinge of
+democracy now and then; but after he was invested with the peerage, he
+felt sure from that moment that the human species had no more progress to
+make.
+
+The French Revolution was ended; its giddiest height attained.  No longer
+could any one walk, talk, write, or rise.  That perplexed him.  Had he
+been sincere, he would have avowed that he could not comprehend that
+there could be storms, or thunder-clouds in the heavens--that the world
+was not perfectly happy and tranquil, while he himself was so.  When his
+nephew was old enough to comprehend him, Baron Tonnelier was no longer
+peer of France; but being one who does himself no hurt--and sometimes
+much good by a fall, he filled a high office under the new government.
+He endeavored to discharge its duties conscientiously, as he had those of
+the preceding reign.
+
+He spoke with peculiar ease of suppressing this or that journal--such an
+orator, such a book; of suppressing everything, in short, except himself.
+In his view, France had been in the wrong road since 1789, and he sought
+to lead her back from that fatal date.
+
+Nevertheless, he never spoke of returning, in his proper person, to his
+grandfather's mill; which, to say the least, was inconsistent.  Had
+Liberty been mother to this old gentleman, and had he met her in a clump
+of woods, he would have strangled her.  We regret to add that he had the
+habit of terming "old duffers" such ministers as he suspected of liberal
+views, and especially such as were in favor of popular education.  A more
+hurtful counsellor never approached a throne; but luckily, while near it
+in office, he was far from it in influence.
+
+He was still a charming man, gallant and fresh--more gallant, however,
+than fresh.  Consequently his habits were not too good, and he haunted
+the greenroom of the opera.  He had two daughters, recently married,
+before whom he repeated the most piquant witticisms of Voltaire, and the
+most improper stories of Tallemant de Reaux; and consequently both
+promised to afford the scandalmongers a series of racy anecdotes, as
+their mother had before them.
+
+While Louis de Camors was learning rapidly, by the association and
+example of the collateral branches of his family, to defy equally all
+principles and all convictions, his terrible father finished the task.
+
+Worldling to the last extreme, depraved to his very core; past-master in
+the art of Parisian high life; an unbridled egotist, thinking himself
+superior to everything because he abased everything to himself; and,
+finally, flattering himself for despising all duties, which he had all
+his life prided himself on dispensing with--such was his father.  But for
+all this, he was the pride of his circle, with a pleasing presence and an
+indefinable charm of manner.
+
+The father and son saw little of each other.  M. de Camors was too proud
+to entangle his son in his own debaucheries; but the course of every-day
+life sometimes brought them together at meal-time.  He would then listen
+with cool mockery to the enthusiastic or despondent speeches of the
+youth.  He never deigned to argue seriously, but responded in a few
+bitter words, that fell like drops of sleet on the few sparks still
+glowing in the son's heart.
+
+Becoming gradually discouraged, the latter lost all taste for work, and
+gave himself up, more and more, to the idle pleasures of his position.
+Abandoning himself wholly to these, he threw into them all the seductions
+of his person, all the generosity of his character--but at the same time
+a sadness always gloomy, sometimes desperate.
+
+The bitter malice he displayed, however, did not prevent his being loved
+by women and renowned among men.  And the latter imitated him.
+
+He aided materially in founding a charming school of youth without
+smiles.  His air of ennui and lassitude, which with him at least had the
+excuse of a serious foundation, was servilely copied by the youth around
+him, who never knew any greater distress than an overloaded stomach, but
+whom it pleased, nevertheless, to appear faded in their flower and
+contemptuous of human nature.
+
+We have seen Camors in this phase of his existence.  But in reality
+nothing was more foreign to him than the mask of careless disdain that
+the young man assumed.  Upon falling into the common ditch, he, perhaps,
+had one advantage over his fellows: he did not make his bed with base
+resignation; he tried persistently to raise himself from it by a violent
+struggle, only to be hurled upon it once more.
+
+Strong souls do not sleep easily: indifference weighs them down.
+
+They demand a mission--a motive for action--and faith.
+
+Louis de Camors was yet to find his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A NEW ACTRESS IN A NOVEL ROLE
+
+Louis de Camor's father had not I told him all in that last letter.
+
+Instead of leaving him a fortune, he left him only embarrassments, for he
+was three fourths ruined.  The disorder of his affairs had begun a long
+time before, and it was to repair them that he had married; a process
+that had not proved successful.  A large inheritance on which he had
+relied as coming to his wife went elsewhere--to endow a charity hospital.
+The Comte de Camors began a suit to recover it before the tribunal of the
+Council of State, but compromised it for an annuity of thirty thousand
+francs.  This stopped at his death.  He enjoyed, besides, several fat
+sinecures, which his name, his social rank, and his personal address
+secured him from some of the great insurance companies.  But these
+resources did not survive him; he only rented the house he had occupied;
+and the young Comte de Camors found himself suddenly reduced to the
+provision of his mother's dowry--a bare pittance to a man of his habits
+and rank.
+
+His father had often assured him he could leave him nothing, so the son
+was accustomed to look forward to this situation.  Therefore, when he
+realized it, he was neither surprised nor revolted by the improvident
+egotism of which he was the victim.  His reverence for his father
+continued unabated, and he did not read with the less respect or
+confidence the singular missive which figures at the beginning of this
+story.  The moral theories which this letter advanced were not new to
+him.  They were a part of the very atmosphere around him; he had often
+revolved them in his feverish brain; yet, never before had they appeared
+to him in the condensed form of a dogma, with the clear precision of a
+practical code; nor as now, with the authorization of such a voice and of
+such an example.
+
+One incident gave powerful aid in confirming the impression of these last
+pages on his mind.  Eight days after his father's death, he was reclining
+on the lounge in his smoking-room, his face dark as night and as his
+thoughts, when a servant entered and handed him a card.  He took it
+listlessly, and read" Lescande, architect."  Two red spots rose to his
+pale cheeks--"I do not see any one," he said.
+
+"So I told this gentleman," replied the servant, "but he insists in such
+an extraordinary manner--"
+
+"In an extraordinary manner?"
+
+"Yes, sir; as if he had something very serious to communicate."
+
+"Something serious--aha!  Then let him in."  Camors rose and paced the
+chamber, a smile of bitter mockery wreathing his lips.  "And must I now
+kill him?"  he muttered between his teeth.
+
+Lescande entered, and his first act dissipated the apprehension his
+conduct had caused.  He rushed to the young Count and seized him by both
+hands, while Camors remarked that his face was troubled and his lips
+trembled.  "Sit down and be calm," he said.
+
+"My friend," said the other, after a pause, "I come late to see you, for
+which I crave pardon; but--I am myself so miserable!  See, I am in
+mourning!"
+
+Camors felt a chill run to his very marrow.  "In mourning! and why?"  he
+asked, mechanically.
+
+"Juliette is dead!"  sobbed Lescande, and covered his eyes with his great
+hands.
+
+"Great God!"  cried Camors in a hollow voice.  He listened a moment to
+Lescande's bitter sobs, then made a movement to take his hand, but dared
+not do it.  "Great God! is it possible?"  he repeated.
+
+"It was so sudden!"  sobbed Lescande, brokenly.  "It seems like a dream--
+a frightful dream!  You know the last time you visited us she was not
+well.  You remember I told you she had wept all day.  Poor child!  The
+morning of my return she was seized with congestion--of the lungs--of the
+brain--I don't know!--but she is dead!  And so good!--so gentle, so
+loving! to the last moment!  Oh, my friend!  my friend!  A few moments
+before she died, she called me to her side.  'Oh, I love you so!  I love
+you so!' she said.  'I never loved any but you--you only!  Pardon me!--
+oh, pardon me!'  Pardon her, poor child!  My God, for what?  for dying?
+--for she never gave me a moment's grief before in this world.  Oh, God
+of mercy!"
+
+"I beseech you, my friend--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I do wrong.  You also have your griefs.
+
+"But we are all selfish, you know.  However, it was not of that that I
+came to speak.  Tell me--I know not whether a report I hear is correct.
+Pardon me if I mistake, for you know I never would dream of offending
+you; but they say that you have been left in very bad circumstances.  If
+this is indeed so, my friend--"
+
+"It is not," interrupted Camors, abruptly.
+
+"Well, if it were--I do not intend keeping my little house.  Why should
+I, now?  My little son can wait while I work for him.  Then, after
+selling my house, I shall have two hundred thousand francs.  Half of this
+is yours--return it when you can!"
+
+"I thank you, my unselfish friend," replied Camors, much moved, "but I
+need nothing.  My affairs are disordered, it is true; but I shall still
+remain richer than you."
+
+"Yes, but with your tastes--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"At all events, you know where to find me.  I may count upon you--may I
+not?"
+
+"You may."
+
+"Adieu, my friend!  I can do you no good now; but I shall see you again
+--shall I not?"
+
+"Yes--another time."
+
+Lescande departed, and the young Count remained immovable, with his
+features convulsed and his eyes fixed on vacancy.
+
+This moment decided his whole future.
+
+Sometimes a man feels a sudden, unaccountable impulse to smother in
+himself all human love and sympathy.
+
+
+In the presence of this unhappy man, so unworthily treated, so broken-
+spirited, so confiding, Camors--if there be any truth in old spiritual
+laws--should have seen himself guilty of an atrocious act, which should
+have condemned him to a remorse almost unbearable.
+
+But if it were true that the human herd was but the product of material
+forces in nature, producing, haphazard, strong beings and weak ones--
+lambs and lions--he had played only the lion's part in destroying his
+companion.  He said to himself, with his father's letter beneath his
+eyes, that this was the fact; and the reflection calmed him.
+
+The more he thought, that day and the next, in depth of the retreat in
+which he had buried himself, the more was he persuaded that this doctrine
+was that very truth which he had sought, and which his father had
+bequeathed to him as the whole rule of his life.  His cold and barren
+heart opened with a voluptuous pleasure under this new flame that filled
+and warmed it.
+
+From this moment he possessed a faith--a principle of action--a plan of
+life--all that he needed; and was no longer oppressed by doubts,
+agitation, and remorse.  This doctrine, if not the most elevated, was at
+least above the level of the most of mankind.  It satisfied his pride and
+justified his scorn.
+
+To preserve his self-esteem, it was only necessary for him to preserve
+his honor, to do nothing low, as his father had said; and he determined
+never to do anything which, in his eyes, partook of that character.
+Moreover, were there not men he himself had met thoroughly steeped in
+materialism, who were yet regarded as the most honorable men of their
+day?
+
+Perhaps he might have asked himself whether this incontestable fact might
+not, in part, have been attributed rather to the individual than to the
+doctrine; and whether men's beliefs did not always influence their
+actions.  However that might have been, from the date of this crisis
+Louis de Camors made his father's will the rule of his life.
+
+To develop in all their strength the physical and intellectual gifts
+which he possessed; to make of himself the polished type of the
+civilization of the times; to charm women and control men; to revel in
+all the joys of intellect, of the senses, and of rank; to subdue as
+servile instincts all natural sentiments; to scorn, as chimeras and
+hypocrisies, all vulgar beliefs; to love nothing, fear nothing, respect
+nothing, save honor--such, in fine, were the duties which he recognized,
+and the rights which he arrogated to himself.
+
+It was with these redoubtable weapons, and strengthened by a keen
+intelligence and vigorous will, that he would return to the world--his
+brow calm and grave, his eye caressing while unyielding, a smile upon his
+lips, as men had known him.
+
+From this moment there was no cloud either upon his mind or upon his
+face, which wore the aspect of perpetual youth.  He determined, above
+all, not to retrench, but to preserve, despite the narrowness of his
+present fortune, those habits of elegant luxury in which he still might
+indulge for several years, by the expenditure of his principal.
+
+Both pride and policy gave him this council in an equal degree.  He was
+not ignorant that the world is as cold toward the needy as it is warm to
+those not needing its countenance.  Had he been thus ignorant, the
+attitude of his family, just after the death of his father, would have
+opened his eyes to the fact.
+
+His aunt de la Roche-Jugan and his uncle Tonnelier manifested toward him
+the cold circumspection of people who suspected they were dealing with a
+ruined man.  They had even, for greater security, left Paris, and
+neglected to notify the young Count in what retreat they had chosen to
+hide their grief.  Nevertheless he was soon to learn it, for while he was
+busied in settling his father's affairs and organizing his own projects
+of fortune and ambition, one fine morning in August he met with a lively
+surprise.
+
+He counted among his relatives one of the richest landed proprietors of
+France, General the Marquis de Campvallon d'Armignes, celebrated for his
+fearful outbursts in the Corps Legislatif.  He had a voice of thunder,
+and when he rolled out, "Bah!  Enough!  Stop this order of the day!"  the
+senate trembled, and the government commissioners bounced on their
+chairs.  Yet he was the best fellow in the world, although he had killed
+two fellow-creatures in duels--but then he had his reasons for that.
+
+Camors knew him but slightly, paid him the necessary respect that
+politeness demanded toward a relative; met him sometimes at the club,
+over a game of whist, and that was all.
+
+Two years before, the General had lost a nephew, the direct heir to his
+name and fortune.  Consequently he was hunted by an eager pack of cousins
+and relatives; and Madame de la Roche-Jugan and the Baroness Tonnelier
+gave tongue in their foremost rank.
+
+Camors was indifferent, and had, since that event, been particularly
+reserved in his intercourse with the General.  Therefore he was
+considerably astonished when he received the following letter:
+
+     "DEAR KINSMAN:
+
+     "Your two aunts and their families are with me in the country.
+     When it is agreeable to you to join them, I shall always feel happy
+     to give a cordial greeting to the son of an old friend and
+     companion-in-arms.
+
+     "I presented myself at your house before leaving Paris, but you were
+     not visible.
+
+     "Believe me, I comprehend your grief: that you have experienced an
+     irreparable loss, in which I sympathize with you most sincerely.
+
+     "Receive, my dear kinsman, the best wishes of
+               GENERAL, THE MARQUIS DE CAMPVALLON D'ARMIGNES.
+
+     "CHATEAU DE CAMPVALLON, Voie de l'ouest.
+
+     "P.S.--It is probable, my young cousin, that I may have something of
+     interest to communicate to you!"
+
+
+This last sentence, and the exclamation mark that followed it, failed
+not to shake slightly the impassive calm that Camors was at that moment
+cultivating.  He could not help seeing, as in a mirror, under the veil
+of the mysterious postscript, the reflection of seven hundred thousand
+francs of ground-rent which made the splendid income of the General.
+He recalled that his father, who had served some time in Africa, had been
+attached to the staff of M. de Campvallon as aide-de-camp, and that he
+had besides rendered him a great service of a different nature.
+
+Notwithstanding that he felt the absurdity of these dreams, and wished to
+keep his heart free from them, he left the next day for Campvallon.
+After enjoying for seven or eight hours all the comforts and luxuries the
+Western line is reputed to afford its guests, Camors arrived in the
+evening at the station, where the General's carriage awaited him.  The
+seignorial pile of the Chateau Campvallon soon appeared to him on a
+height, of which the sides were covered with magnificent woods, sloping
+down nearly to the plain, there spreading out widely.
+
+It was almost the dinner-hour; and the young man, after arranging his
+toilet, immediately descended to the drawing-room, where his presence
+seemed to throw a wet blanket over the assembled circle.  To make up for
+this, the General gave him the warmest welcome; only--as he had a short
+memory or little imagination--he found nothing better to say than to
+repeat the expressions of his letter, while squeezing his hand almost to
+the point of fracture.
+
+"The son of my old friend and companion-in-arms," he cried; and the words
+rang out in such a sonorous voice they seemed to impress even himself--
+for it was noticeable that after a remark, the General always seemed
+astonished, as if startled by the words that came out of his mouth--and
+that seemed suddenly to expand the compass of his ideas and the depth of
+his sentiments.
+
+To complete his portrait: he was of medium size, square, and stout;
+panting when he ascended stairs, or even walking on level ground; a face
+massive and broad as a mask, and reminding one of those fabled beings who
+blew fire from their nostrils; a huge moustache, white and grizzly; small
+gray eyes, always fixed, like those of a doll, but still terrible.  He
+marched toward a man slowly, imposingly, with eyes fixed, as if beginning
+a duel to the death, and demanded of him imperatively--the time of day!
+
+Camors well knew this innocent weakness of his host, but,
+notwithstanding, was its dupe for one instant during the evening.
+
+They had left the dining-table, and he was standing carelessly in the
+alcove of a window, holding a cup of coffee, when the General approached
+him from the extreme end of the room with a severe yet confidential
+expression, which seemed to preface an announcement of the greatest
+importance.
+
+The postscript rose before him.  He felt he was to have an immediate
+explanation.
+
+The General approached, seized him by the buttonhole, and withdrawing him
+from the depth of the recess, looked into his eyes as if he wished to
+penetrate his very soul.  Suddenly he spoke, in his thunderous voice.
+He said:
+
+"What do you take in the morning, young man?"
+
+"Tea, General."
+
+"Aha!  Then give your orders to Pierre--just as if you were at home;"
+and, turning on his heel and joining the ladies, he left Camors to digest
+his little comedy as he might.
+
+Eight days passed.  Twice the General made his guest the object of his
+formidable advance.  The first time, having put him out of countenance,
+he contented himself with exclaiming:
+
+"Well, young man!"  and turned on his heel.
+
+The next time he bore down upon Camors, he said not a word, and retired
+in silence.
+
+Evidently the General had not the slightest recollection of the
+postscript.  Camors tried to be contented, but would continually ask
+himself why he had come to Campvallon, in the midst of his family,
+of whom he was not overfond, and in the depths of the country, which he
+execrated.  Luckily, the castle boasted a library well stocked with works
+on civil and international law, jurisprudence, and political economy.
+He took advantage of it; and, resuming the thread of those serious
+studies which had been broken off during his period of hopelessness,
+plunged into those recondite themes that pleased his active intelligence
+and his awakened ambition.  Thus he waited patiently until politeness
+would permit him to bring to an explanation the former friend and
+companion-in-arms of his father.  In the morning he rode on horseback;
+gave a lesson in fencing to his cousin Sigismund, the son of Madame de la
+Roche-Jugan; then shut himself up in the library until the evening, which
+he passed at bezique with the General.  Meantime he viewed with the eye
+of a philosopher the strife of the covetous relatives who hovered around
+their rich prey.
+
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan had invented an original way of making herself
+agreeable to the General, which was to persuade him he had disease of the
+heart.  She continually felt his pulse with her plump hand, sometimes
+reassuring him, and at others inspiring him with a salutary terror,
+although he denied it.
+
+"Good heavens!  my dear cousin!"  he would exclaim, "let me alone.  I
+know I am mortal like everybody else.  What of that?  But I see your aim-
+it is to convert me!  Ta-ta!"
+
+She not only wished to convert him, but to marry him, and bury him
+besides.
+
+She based her hopes in this respect chiefly on her son Sigismund; knowing
+that the General bitterly regretted having no one to inherit his name.
+He had but to marry Madame de la Roche-Jugan and adopt her son to banish
+this care.  Without a single allusion to this fact, the Countess failed
+not to turn the thoughts of the General toward it with all the tact of an
+accomplished intrigante, with all the ardor of a mother, and with all the
+piety of an unctuous devotee.
+
+Her sister, the Baroness Tonnelier, bitterly confessed her own
+disadvantage.  She was not a widow.  And she had no son.  But she had two
+daughters, both of them graceful, very elegant and sparkling.  One was
+Madame Bacquiere, the wife of a broker; the other, Madame Van-Cuyp, wife
+of a young Hollander, doing business at Paris.
+
+Both interpreted life and marriage gayly; both floated from one year into
+another dancing, riding, hunting, coquetting, and singing recklessly the
+most risque songs of the minor theatres.  Formerly, Camors, in his
+pensive mood, had taken an aversion to these little examples of modern
+feminine frivolity.  Since he had changed his views of life he did them
+more justice.  He said, calmly:
+
+"They are pretty little animals that follow their instincts."
+
+Mesdames Bacquiere and Van-Cuyp, instigated by their mother, applied
+themselves assiduously to making the General feel all the sacred joys
+that cluster round the domestic hearth.  They enlivened his household,
+exercised his horses, killed his game, and tortured his piano.  They
+seemed to think that the General, once accustomed to their sweetness and
+animation, could not do without it, and that their society would become
+indispensable to him.  They mingled, too, with their adroit manoeuvres,
+familiar and delicate attentions, likely to touch an old man.  They sat
+on his knees like children, played gently with his moustache, and
+arranged in the latest style the military knot of his cravat.
+
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan never ceased to deplore confidentially to the
+General the unfortunate education of her nieces; while the Baroness, on
+her side, lost no opportunity of holding up in bold relief the emptiness,
+impertinence, and sulkiness of young Count Sigismund.
+
+In the midst of these honorable conflicts one person, who took no part in
+them, attracted the greatest share of Camors's interest; first for her
+beauty and afterward for her qualities.  This was an orphan of excellent
+family, but very poor, of whom Madame de la Roche-Jugan and Madame
+Tonnelier had taken joint charge.  Mademoiselle Charlotte de Luc
+d'Estrelles passed six months of each year with the Countess and six with
+the Baroness.  She was twenty-five years of age, tall and blonde, with
+deep-set eyes under the shadow of sweeping, black lashes.  Thick masses
+of hair framed her sad but splendid brow; and she was badly, or rather
+poorly dressed, never condescending to wear the cast-off clothes of her
+relatives, but preferring gowns of simplest material made by her own
+hands.  These draperies gave her the appearance of an antique statue.
+
+Her Tonnelier cousins nicknamed her "the goddess."  They hated her; she
+despised them.  The name they gave her, however, was marvellously
+suitable.
+
+When she walked, you would have imagined she had descended from a
+pedestal; the pose of her head was like that of the Greek Venus; her
+delicate, dilating nostrils seemed carved by a cunning chisel from
+transparent ivory.  She had a startled, wild air, such as one sees in
+pictures of huntress nymphs.  She used a naturally fine voice with great
+effect; and had already cultivated, so far as she could, a taste for art.
+
+She was naturally so taciturn one was compelled to guess her thoughts;
+and long since Camors had reflected as to what was passing in that self-
+centred soul.  Inspired by his innate generosity, as well as his secret
+admiration, he took pleasure in heaping upon this poor cousin the
+attentions he might have paid a queen; but she always seemed as
+indifferent to them as she was to the opposite course of her involuntary
+benefactress.  Her position at Campvallon was very odd.  After Camors's
+arrival, she was more taciturn than ever; absorbed, estranged, as if
+meditating some deep design, she would suddenly raise the long lashes of
+her blue eyes, dart a rapid glance here and there, and finally fix it on
+Camors, who would feel himself tremble under it.
+
+One afternoon, when he was seated in the library, he heard a gentle tap
+at the door, and Mademoiselle entered, looking very pale.  Somewhat
+astonished, he rose and saluted her.
+
+"I wish to speak with you, cousin," she said.  The accent was pure and
+grave, but slightly touched with evident emotion.  Camors stared at her,
+showed her to a divan, and took a chair facing her.
+
+"You know very little of me, cousin," she continued, "but I am frank and
+courageous.  I will come at once to the object that brings me here.  Is
+it true that you are ruined?"
+
+"Why do you ask, Mademoiselle?"
+
+"You always have been very good to me--you only.  I am very grateful to
+you; and I also--" She stopped, dropped her eyes, and a bright flush
+suffused her cheeks.  Then she bent her head, smiling like one who has
+regained courage under difficulty.  "Well, then," she resumed, "I am
+ready to devote my life to you.  You will deem me very romantic, but I
+have wrought out of our united poverty a very charming picture, I
+believe.  I am sure I should make an excellent wife for the husband I
+loved.  If you must leave France, as they tell me you must, I will follow
+you--I will be your brave and faithful helpmate.  Pardon me, one word
+more, Monsieur de Camors.  My proposition would be immodest if it
+concealed any afterthought.  It conceals none.  I am poor.  I have but
+fifteen hundred francs' income.  If you are richer than I, consider I
+have said nothing; for nothing in the world would then induce me to marry
+you!"
+
+She paused; and with a manner of mingled yearning, candor, and anguish,
+fixed on him her large eyes full of fire.
+
+There was a solemn pause.  Between these strange natures, both high and
+noble, a terrible destiny seemed pending at this moment, and both felt
+it.
+
+At length Camors responded in a grave, calm voice: "It is impossible,
+Mademoiselle, that you can appreciate the trial to which you expose me;
+but I have searched my heart, and I there find nothing worthy of you.
+Do me the justice to believe that my decision is based neither upon your
+fortune nor upon my own: but I am resolved never to marry."  She sighed
+deeply, and rose.  "Adieu, cousin," she said.
+
+"I beg--I pray you to remain one moment," cried the young man, reseating
+her with gentle force upon the sofa.  He walked half across the room to
+repress his agitation; then leaning on a table near the young girl, said:
+
+"Mademoiselle Charlotte, you are unhappy; are you not?"
+
+"A little, perhaps," she answered.
+
+"I do not mean at this moment, but always?"
+
+"Always!"
+
+"Aunt de la Roche-Jugan treats you harshly?"
+
+"Undoubtedly; she dreads that I may entrap her son.  Good heavens!"
+
+"The little Tonneliers are jealous of you, and Uncle Tonnelier torments
+you?"
+
+"Basely!"  she said; and two tears swam on her eyelashes, then glistened
+like diamonds on her cheek.
+
+"And what do you believe of the religion of our aunt?"
+
+"What would you have me believe of religion that bestows no virtue--
+restrains no vice?"
+
+"Then you are a non-believer?"
+
+"One may believe in God and the Gospel without believing in the religion
+of our aunt."
+
+"But she will drive you into a convent.  Why, then, do you not enter
+one?"
+
+"I love life," the girl said.
+
+He looked at her silently a moment, then continued "Yes, you love life--
+the sunlight, the thoughts, the arts, the luxuries--everything that is
+beautiful, like yourself.  Then, Mademoiselle Charlotte, all these are in
+your hands; why do you not grasp them?"
+
+"How?"  she queried, surprised and somewhat startled.
+
+"If you have, as I believe you have, as much strength of soul as
+intelligence and beauty, you can escape at once and forever the miserable
+servitude fate has imposed upon you.  Richly endowed as you are, you
+might become to-morrow a great artiste, independent, feted, rich, adored
+--the mistress of Paris and of the world!"
+
+"And yours also?--No!"  said this strange girl.
+
+"Pardon, Mademoiselle Charlotte.  I did not suspect you of any improper
+idea, when you offered to share my uncertain fortunes.  Render me, I pray
+you, the same justice at this moment.  My moral principles are very lax,
+it is true, but I am as proud as yourself.  I never shall reach my aim by
+any subterfuge.  No; strive to study art.  I find you beautiful and
+seductive, but I am governed by sentiments superior to personal
+interests.  I was profoundly touched by your sympathetic leaning toward
+me, and have sought to testify my gratitude by friendly counsel.  Since,
+however, you now suspect me of striving to corrupt you for my own ends, I
+am silent, Mademoiselle, and permit you to depart."
+
+"Pray proceed, Monsieur de Camors."
+
+"You will then listen to me with confidence?"
+
+"I will do so."
+
+"Well, then, Mademoiselle, you have seen little of the world, but you
+have seen enough to judge and to be certain of the value of its esteem.
+The world!  That is your family and mine: Monsieur and Madame Tonnelier,
+Monsieur and Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and the little Sigismund!"
+
+"Well, then, Mademoiselle Charlotte, the day that you become a great
+artiste, rich, triumphant, idolized, wealthy--drinking, in deep draughts,
+all the joys of life--that day Uncle Tonnelier will invoke outraged
+morals, our aunt will swoon with prudery in the arms of her old lovers,
+and Madame de la Roche-Jugan will groan and turn her yellow eyes to
+heaven!  But what will all that matter to you?"
+
+"Then, Monsieur, you advise me to lead an immoral life."
+
+"By no manner of means.  I only urge you, in defiance of public opinion,
+to become an actress, as the only sure road to independence, fame, and
+fortune.  And besides, there is no law preventing an actress marrying and
+being 'honorable,' as the world understands the word.  You have heard of
+more than one example of this."
+
+"Without mother, family, or protector, it would be an extraordinary thing
+for me to do!  I can not fail to see that sooner or later I should be a
+lost girl."
+
+Camors remained silent.  "Why do you not answer?"  she asked.
+
+"Heavens!  Mademoiselle, because this is so delicate a subject, and our
+ideas are so different about it.  I can not change mine; I must leave you
+yours.  As for me, I am a very pagan."
+
+"How?  Are good and bad indifferent to you?"
+
+"No; but to me it seems bad to fear the opinion of people one despises,
+to practise what one does not believe, and to yield before prejudices and
+phantoms of which one knows the unreality.  It is bad to be a slave or a
+hypocrite, as are three fourths of the world.  Evil is ugliness,
+ignorance, folly, and baseness.  Good is beauty, talent, ability, and
+courage!  That is all."
+
+"And God?"  the girl cried.  He did not reply.  She looked fixedly at him
+a moment without catching the eyes he kept turned from her.  Her head
+drooped heavily; then raising it suddenly, she said: "There are
+sentiments men can not understand.  In my bitter hours I have often
+dreamed of this free life you now advise; but I have always recoiled
+before one thought--only one."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Perhaps the sentiment is not peculiar to me--perhaps it is excessive
+pride, but I have a great regard for myself--my person is sacred to me.
+Should I come to believe in nothing, like you--and I am far from that
+yet, thank God!--I should even then remain honest and true--faithful to
+one love, simply from pride.  I should prefer," she added, in a voice
+deep and sustained, but somewhat strained, "I should prefer to desecrate
+an altar rather than myself!"
+
+Saying these words, she rose, made a haughty movement of the head in sign
+of an adieu, and left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE COUNT LOSES A LADY AND FINDS A MISSION
+
+Camors sat for some time plunged in thought.
+
+He was astonished at the depths he had discovered in her character; he
+was displeased with himself without well knowing why; and, above all, he
+was much struck by his cousin.
+
+However, as he had but a slight opinion of the sincerity of women, he
+persuaded himself that Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles, when she came to
+offer him her heart and hand, nevertheless knew he was not altogether a
+despicable match for her.  He said to himself that a few years back he
+might have been duped by her apparent sincerity, and congratulated
+himself on not having fallen into this attractive snare--on not having
+listened to the first promptings of credulity and sincere emotion.
+
+He might have spared himself these compliments.  Mademoiselle de Luc
+d'Estrelles, as he was soon to discover, had been in that perfectly
+frank, generous, and disinterested state of mind in which women sometimes
+are.
+
+Only, would it happen to him to find her so in the future?  That was
+doubtful, thanks to M. de Camors.  It often happens that by despising men
+too much, we degrade them; in suspecting women too much, we lose them.
+
+About an hour passed; there was another rap at the library door.  Camors
+felt a slight palpitation and a secret wish that it should prove
+Mademoiselle Charlotte.
+
+It was the General who entered.  He advanced with measured stride, puffed
+like some sea-monster, and seized Camors by the lapel of his coat.  Then
+he said, impressively:
+
+"Well, young gentleman!"
+
+"Well, General."
+
+"What are you doing in here?"
+
+"Oh, I am at work."
+
+"At work?  Um!  Sit down there--sit down, sit down!"  He threw himself on
+the sofa where Mademoiselle had been, which rather changed the
+perspective for Camors.
+
+"Well, well!"  he repeated, after a long pause.
+
+"But what then, General?"
+
+"What then?  The deuce!  Why, have you not noticed that I have been for
+some days extraordinarily agitated?"
+
+"No, General, I have not noticed it."
+
+"You are not very observing!  I am extraordinarily agitated--enough to
+fatigue the eyes.  So agitated, upon my word of honor, that there are
+moments when I am tempted to believe your aunt is right: that I have
+disease of the heart!"
+
+"Bah, General!  My aunt is dreaming; you have the pulse of an infant."
+
+"You believe so, really?  I do not fear death; but it is always annoying
+to think of it.  But I am too much agitated--it is necessary to put a
+stop to it.  You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly; but how can it concern me?"
+
+"Concern you?  You are about to hear.  You are my cousin, are you not?"
+
+"Truly, General, I have that honor."
+
+"But very distant, eh?  I have thirty-six cousins as near as you, and--
+the devil!  To speak plainly, I owe you nothing."
+
+"And I have never demanded payment even of that, General."
+
+"Ah, I know that!  Well, you are my cousin, very far removed!  But you
+are more than that.  Your father saved my life in the Atlas.  He has
+related it all to you--No?  Well, that does not astonish me; for he was
+no braggart, that father of yours; he was a man!  Had he not quitted the
+army, a brilliant career was before him.  People talk a great deal of
+Pelissier, of Canrobert, of MacMahon, and of others.  I say nothing
+against them; they are good men doubtless--at least I hear so; but your
+father would have eclipsed them all had he taken the trouble.  But he
+didn't take the trouble!
+
+"Well, for the story: We were crossing a gorge of the Atlas; we were in
+retreat; I had lost my command; I was following as a volunteer.  It is
+useless to weary you with details; we were in retreat; a shower of stones
+and bullets poured upon us, as if from the moon.  Our column was slightly
+disordered; I was in the rearguard--whack!  my horse was down, and I
+under him!
+
+We were in a narrow gorge with sloping sides some fifteen feet high; five
+dirty guerillas slid down the sides and fell upon me and on the beast--
+forty devils!  I can see them now!  Just here the gorge took a sudden
+turn, so no one could see my trouble; or no one wished to see it, which
+comes to the same thing.
+
+"I have told you things were in much disorder; and I beg you to remember
+that with a dead horse and five live Arabs on top of me, I was not very
+comfortable.  I was suffocating; in fact, I was devilish far from
+comfortable.
+
+"Just then your father ran to my assistance, like the noble fellow he
+was!  He drew me from under my horse; he fell upon the Arabs.  When I was
+up, I aided him a little--but that is nothing to the point--I never shall
+forget him!"
+
+There was a pause, when the General added:
+
+"Let us understand each other, and speak plainly.  Would it be very
+repugnant to your feelings to have seven hundred thousand francs a year,
+and to be called, after me, Marquis de Campvallon d'Armignes?  Come,
+speak up, and give me an answer."
+
+The young Count reddened slightly.
+
+"My name is Camors," he said, gently.
+
+"What!  You would not wish me to adopt you?  You refuse to become the
+heir of my name and of my fortune?"
+
+"Yes, General."
+
+"Do you not wish time to reflect upon it?"
+
+"No, General.  I am sincerely grateful for your goodness; your generous
+intentions toward me touch me deeply, but in a question of honor I never
+reflect or hesitate."
+
+The General puffed fiercely, like a locomotive blowing off steam.  Then
+he rose and took two or three turns up and down the gallery, shuffling
+his feet, his chest heaving.  Then he returned and reseated himself.
+
+"What are your plans for the future?"  he asked, abruptly.
+
+"I shall try, in the first place, General, to repair my fortune, which is
+much shattered.  I am not so great a stranger to business as people
+suppose, and my father's connections and my own will give me a footing in
+some great financial or industrial enterprise.  Once there, I shall
+succeed by force of will and steady work.  Besides, I shall fit myself
+for public life, and aspire, when circumstances permit me, to become a
+deputy."
+
+"Well, well, a man must do something.  Idleness is the parent of all
+vices.  See; like yourself, I am fond of the horse--a noble animal.
+I approve of racing; it improves the breed of horses, and aids in
+mounting our cavalry efficiently.  But sport should be an amusement, not
+a profession.  Hem!  so you aspire to become a deputy?"
+
+"Assuredly."
+
+"Then I can help you in that, at least.  When you are ready I will send
+in my resignation, and recommend to my brave and faithful constituents
+that you take my place.  Will that suit you?"
+
+"Admirably, General; and I am truly grateful.  But why should you
+resign?"
+
+"Why?  Well, to be useful to you in the first place; in the second, I am
+sick of it.  I shall not be sorry to give personally a little lesson to
+the government, which I trust will profit by it.  You know me--I am no
+Jacobin; at first I thought that would succeed.  But when I see what is
+going on!"
+
+"What is going on, General?"
+
+"When I see a Tonnelier a great dignitary!  It makes me long for the pen
+of Tacitus, on my word.  When I was retired in 'forty-eight, under a mean
+and cruel injustice they did me, I had not reached the age of exemption.
+I was still capable of good and loyal service; but probably I could have
+waited until an amendment.  I found it at least in the confidence of my
+brave and faithful constituents.  But, my young friend, one tires of
+everything.  The Assemblies at the Luxembourg--I mean the Palace of the
+Bourbons--fatigue me.  In short, whatever regret I may feel at parting
+from my honorable colleagues, and from my faithful constituents, I shall
+abdicate my functions whenever you are ready and willing to accept them.
+Have you not some property in this district?"
+
+"Yes, General, a little property which belonged to my mother; a small
+manor, with a little land round it, called Reuilly."
+
+"Reuilly!  Not two steps from Des Rameures!  Certainly--certainly!  Well,
+that is one foot in the stirrup."
+
+"But then there is one difficulty; I am obliged to sell it."
+
+"The devil!  And why?"
+
+"It is all that is left to me, and it only brings me eleven thousand
+francs a year; and to embark in business I need capital--a beginning.
+I prefer not to borrow."
+
+The General rose, and once more his military tramp shook the gallery.
+Then he threw himself back on the sofa.
+
+"You must not sell that property!  I owe you nothing, 'tis true, but I
+have an affection for you.  You refuse to be my adopted son.  Well, I
+regret this, and must have recourse to other projects to aid you.  I warn
+you I shall try other projects.  You must not sell your lands if you wish
+to become a deputy, for the country people--especially those of Des
+Rameures--will not hear of it.  Meantime you will need funds.  Permit me
+to offer you three hundred thousand francs.  You may return them when you
+can, without interest, and if you never return them you will confer a
+very great favor upon me."
+
+"But in truth, General--"
+
+"Come, come!  Accept it as from a relative--from a friend--from your
+father's friend--on any ground you please, so you accept.  If not, you
+will wound me seriously."
+
+Camors rose, took the General's hand, and pressing it with emotion, said,
+briefly:
+
+"I accept, sir.  I thank you!"
+
+The General sprang up at these words like a furious lion, his moustache
+bristling, his nostrils dilating, his chest heaving.  Staring at the
+young Count with real ferocity, he suddenly drew him to his breast and
+embraced him with great fervor.  Then he strode to the door with his
+usual solemnity, and quickly brushing a tear from his cheek, left the
+room.
+
+The General was a good man; but, like many good people, he had not been
+happy.  You might smile at his oddities: you never could reproach him
+with vices.
+
+He was a small man, but he had a great soul.  Timid at heart, especially
+with women, he was delicate, passionate, and chaste.  He had loved but
+little, and never had been loved at all.  He declared that he had retired
+from all friendship with women, because of a wrong that he had suffered.
+At forty years of age he had married the daughter of a poor colonel who
+had been killed by the enemy.  Not long after, his wife had deceived him
+with one of his aides-de-camp.
+
+The treachery was revealed to him by a rival, who played on this occasion
+the infamous role of Iago.  Campvallon laid aside his starred epaulettes,
+and in two successive duels, still remembered in Africa, killed on two
+successive days the guilty one and his betrayer.  His wife died shortly
+after, and he was left more lonely than ever.  He was not the man to
+console himself with venal love; a gross remark made him blush; the corps
+de ballet inspired him with terror.  He did not dare to avow it, but the
+dream of his old age, with his fierce moustache and his grim countenance,
+was the devoted love of some young girl, at whose feet he might pour out,
+without shame, without distrust even, all the tenderness of his simple
+and heroic heart.
+
+On the evening of the day which had been marked for Camors by these two
+interesting episodes, Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles did not come down
+to dinner, but sent word she had a headache.  This message was received
+with a general murmur, and with some sharp remarks from Madame de la
+Roche-Jugan, which implied Mademoiselle was not in a position which
+justified her in having a headache.  The dinner, however, was not less
+gay than usual, thanks to Mesdames Bacquiere and Van-Cuyp, and to their
+husbands, who had arrived from Paris to pass Sunday with them.
+
+To celebrate this happy meeting, they drank very freely of champagne,
+talked slang, and imitated actors, causing much amusement to the
+servants.  Returning to the drawing-room, these innocent young things
+thought it very funny to take their husbands' hats, put their feet in
+them, and, thus shod, to run a steeplechase across the room.  Meantime
+Madame de la Roche-Jagan felt the General's pulse frequently, and found
+it variable.
+
+Next morning at breakfast all the General's guests assembled, except
+Mademoiselle d'Estrelles, whose headache apparently was no better.  They
+remarked also the absence of the General, who was the embodiment of
+politeness and punctuality.  A sense of uneasiness was beginning to creep
+over all, when suddenly the door opened and the General appeared leading
+Mademoiselle d'Estrelles by the hand.
+
+The young girl's eyes were red; her face was very pale.  The General's
+face was scarlet.  He advanced a few steps, like an actor about to
+address his audience; cast fierce glances on all sides of him, and
+cleared his throat with a sound that echoed like the bass notes of a
+grand piano.  Then he spoke in a voice of thunder:
+
+"My dear guests and friends, permit me to present to you the Marquise de
+Campvallon d'Armignes!"
+
+An iceberg at the North Pole is not colder than was the General's salon
+at this announcement.
+
+He held the young lady by the hand, and retaining his position in the
+centre of the room, launched out fierce glances.  Then his eyes began to
+wander and roll convulsively in their sockets, as if he was himself
+astonished at the effect his announcement had produced.
+
+Camors was the first to come to the rescue, and taking his hand, said:
+"Accept, my dear General, my congratulations.  I am extremely happy, and
+rejoice at your good fortune; the more so, as I feel the lady is so well
+worthy of you."  Then, bowing to Mademoiselle d'Estrelles with a grave
+grace, he pressed her hand, and turning away, was struck dumb at seeing
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan in the arms of the General.  She passed from his
+into those of Mademoiselle d'Estrelles, who feared at first, from the
+violence of the caresses, that there was a secret design to strangle her.
+
+"General," said Madame de la Roche-Jugan in a plaintive voice, "you
+remember I always recommended her to you.  I always spoke well of her.
+She is my daughter--my second child.  Sigismund, embrace your sister!
+You permit it, General?  Ah, we never know how much we love these
+children until we lose them!  I always spoke well of her; did I not--Ge--
+General?"  And here Madame de la Roche-Jugan burst into tears.
+
+The General, who began to entertain a high opinion of the Countess's
+heart, declared that Mademoiselle d'Estrelles would find in him a friend
+and father.  After which flattering assurance, Madame de la Roche-Jugan
+seated herself in a solitary corner, behind a curtain, whence they heard
+sobs and moans issue for a whole hour.  She could not even breakfast;
+happiness had taken away her appetite.
+
+The ice once broken, all tried to make themselves agreeable.  The
+Tonneliers did not behave, however, with the same warmth as the tender
+Countess, and it was easy to see that Mesdames Bacquiere and VanCuyp
+could not picture to themselves, without envy, the shower of gold and
+diamonds about to fall into the lap of their cousin.  Messrs.  Bacquiere
+and Van-Cuyp were naturally the first sufferers, and their charming wives
+made them understand, at intervals during the day, that they thoroughly
+despised them.  It was a bitter Sunday for those poor fellows.  The
+Tonnelier family also felt that little more was to be done there, and
+left the next morning with a very cold adieu.
+
+The conduct of the Countess was more noble.  She declared she would wait
+upon her dearly beloved Charlotte from the altar to the very threshold of
+the nuptial chamber; that she would arrange her trousseau, and that the
+marriage should take place from her house.
+
+"Deuce take me, my dear Countess!"  cried the General, "I must declare
+one thing--you astonish me.  I was unjust, cruelly unjust, toward you.
+I reproach myself, on my faith!  I believed you worldly, interested, not
+open-hearted.  But you are none of these; you are an excellent woman--
+a heart of gold--a noble soul!  My dear friend, you have found the best
+way to convert me.  I have always believed the religion of honor was
+sufficient for a man--eh, Camors?  But I am not an unbeliever, my dear
+Countess, and, on my sacred word, when I see a perfect creature like you,
+I desire to believe everything she believes, if only to be pleasant to
+her!"
+
+When Camors, who was not quite so innocent, asked himself what was the
+secret of his aunt's politic conduct, but little effort was necessary to
+understand it.
+
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan, who had finally convinced herself that the
+General had an aneurism, flattered herself that the cares of matrimony
+would hasten the doom of her old friend.  In any event, he was past
+seventy years of age.  But Charlotte was young, and so also was
+Sigismund.  Sigismund could become tender; if necessary, could quietly
+court the young Marquise until the day when he could marry her, with all
+her appurtenances, over the mausoleum of the General.  It was for this
+that Madame de la Roche-Jugan, crushed for a moment under the unexpected
+blow that ruined her hopes, had modified her tactics and drawn her
+batteries, so to speak, under cover of the enemy.  This was what she was
+contriving while she was weeping behind the curtain.
+
+Camors's personal feelings at the announcement of this marriage were not
+of the most agreeable description.  First, he was obliged to acknowledge
+that he had unjustly judged Mademoiselle d'Estrelles, and that at the
+moment of his accusing her of speculating on his small fortune, she was
+offering to sacrifice for him the annual seven hundred thousand francs of
+the General.
+
+He felt his vanity injured, that he had not had the best part of this
+affair.  Besides, he felt obliged to stifle from this moment the secret
+passion with which the beautiful and singular girl had inspired him.
+Wife or widow of the General, it was clear that Mademoiselle d'Estrelles
+had forever escaped him.  To seduce the wife of this good old man from
+whom he accepted such favors, or even to marry her, widowed and rich,
+after refusing her when poor, were equal unworthiness and baseness that
+honor forbade in the same degree and with the same rigor as if this
+honor, which he made the only law of his life, were not a mockery and an
+empty word.
+
+Camors, however, did not fail to comprehend the position in this light,
+and he resigned himself to it.
+
+During the four or five days he remained at Campvallon his conduct was
+perfect.  The delicate and reserved attentions with which he surrounded
+Mademoiselle d'Estrelles were tinged with a melancholy that showed her at
+the same time his gratitude, his respect, and his regrets.
+
+M. de Campvallon had not less reason to congratulate himself on the
+conduct of the young Count.  He entered into the folly of his host with
+affectionate grace.  He spoke to him little of the beauty of his fiancee:
+much of her high moral qualities; and let him see his most flattering
+confidence in the future of this union.
+
+On the eve of his departure Camors was summoned into the General's study.
+Handing his young relative a check for three hundred thousand francs, the
+General said:
+
+"My dear young friend, I ought to tell you, for the peace of your
+conscience, that I have informed Mademoiselle d'Estrelles of this little
+service I render you.  She has a great deal of love and affection for
+you, my dear young friend; be sure of that.
+
+"She therefore received my communication with sincere pleasure.  I also
+informed her that I did not intend taking any receipt for this sum, and
+that no reclamation of it should be made at any time, on any account.
+
+"Now, my dear Camors, do me one favor.  To tell you my inmost thought, I
+shall be most happy to see you carry into execution your project of
+laudable ambition.  My own new position, my age, my tastes, and those I
+perceive in the Marquise, claim all my leisure--all my liberty of action.
+Consequently, I desire as soon as possible to present you to my generous
+and faithful constituents, as well for the Corps Legislatif as for the
+General Council.  You had better make your preliminary arrangements as
+soon as possible.  Why should you defer it?  You are very well
+cultivated--very capable.  Well, let us go ahead--let us begin at once.
+What do you say?"
+
+"I should prefer, General, to be more mature; but it would be both folly
+and ingratitude in me not to accede to your kind wish.  What shall I do
+first?"
+
+"Well, my young friend, instead of leaving tomorrow for Paris, you must
+go to your estate at Reuilly: go there and conquer Des Rameures."
+
+"And who are the Des Rameures, General?"
+
+"You do not know the Des Rameures?  The deuce!  no; you can not know
+them!  That is unfortunate, too.
+
+"Des Rameures is a clever fellow, a very clever fellow, and all-powerful
+in his neighborhood.  He is an original, as you will see; and with him
+lives his niece, a charming woman.  I tell you, my boy, you must please
+them, for Des Rameures is the master of the county.  He protects me, or
+else, upon my honor, I should be stopped on the road!"
+
+"But, General, what shall I do to please this Des Rameures?"
+
+"You will see him.  He is, as I tell you, a great oddity.  He has not
+been in Paris since 1825; he has a horror of Paris and Parisians.  Very
+well, it only needs a little tact to flatter his views on that point.  We
+always need a little tact in this world, young man."
+
+"But his niece, General?"
+
+"Ah, the deuce!  You must please the niece also.  He adores her, and she
+manages him completely, although he grumbles a little sometimes."
+
+"And what sort of woman is she?"
+
+"Oh, a respectable woman--a perfectly respectable woman.  A widow;
+somewhat a devotee, but very well informed.  A woman of great merit."
+
+"But what course must I take to please this lady?"
+
+"What course?  By my faith, young man, you ask a great many questions.
+I never yet learned to please a woman.  I am green as a goose with them
+always.  It is a thing I can not understand; but as for you, my young
+comrade, you have little need to be instructed in that matter.  You can't
+fail to please her; you have only to make yourself agreeable.  But you
+will know how to do it--you will conduct yourself like an angel, I am
+sure."
+
+"Captivate Des Rameures and his niece--this is your advice!"
+
+Early next morning Camors left the Chateau de Campvallon, armed with
+these imperfect instructions; and, further, with a letter from the
+General to Des Rameures.
+
+He went in a hired carriage to his own domain of Reuilly, which lay ten
+leagues off.  While making this transit he reflected that the path of
+ambition was not one of roses; and that it was hard for him, at the
+outset of his enterprise, to by compelled to encounter two faces likely
+to be as disquieting as those of Des Rameures and his niece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE OLD DOMAIN OF REUILLY
+
+The domain of Reuilly consisted of two farms and of a house of some
+pretension, inhabited formerly by the maternal family of M. de Camors.
+He had never before seen this property when he reached it on the evening
+of a beautiful summer day.  A long and gloomy avenue of elms, interlacing
+their thick branches, led to the dwelling-house, which was quite unequal
+to the imposing approach to it; for it was but an inferior construction
+of the past century, ornamented simply by a gable and a bull's-eye, but
+flanked by a lordly dovecote.
+
+It derived a certain air of dignity from two small terraces, one above
+the other, in front of it, while the triple flight of steps was supported
+by balusters of granite.  Two animals, which had once, perhaps, resembled
+lions, were placed one upon each side of the balustrade at the platform
+of the highest terrace; and they had been staring there for more than a
+hundred and fifty years.  Behind the house stretched the garden; and in
+its midst, mounted on a stone arch, stood a dismal sun-dial with hearts
+and spades painted between its figures; while the trees around it were
+trimmed into the shapes of confessionals and chess-pawns.  To the right,
+a labyrinth of young trees, similarly clipped in the fashion of the time,
+led by a thousand devious turns to a mysterious valley, where one heard
+continually a low, sad murmur.  This proceeded from a nymph in terra-
+cotta, from whose urn dripped, day and night, a thin rill of water into a
+small fishpond, bordered by grand old poplars, whose shadows threw upon
+its surface, even at mid-day, the blackness of Acheron.
+
+Camors's first reflection at viewing this prospect was an exceedingly
+painful one; and the second was even more so.
+
+At another time he would doubtless have taken an interest in searching
+through these souvenirs of the past for traces of an infant nurtured
+there, who had a mother, and who had perhaps loved these old relics.  But
+his system did not admit of sentiment, so he crushed the ideas that
+crowded to his mind, and, after a rapid glance around him, called for his
+dinner.
+
+The old steward and his wife--who for thirty years had been the sole
+inhabitants of Reuilly--had been informed of his coming.  They had spent
+the day in cleaning and airing the house; an operation which added to the
+discomfort they sought to remove, and irritated the old residents of the
+walls, while it disturbed the sleep of hoary spiders in their dusty webs.
+A mixed odor of the cellar, of the sepulchre, and of an old coach, struck
+Camors when he penetrated into the principal room, where his dinner was
+to be served.
+
+Taking up one or two flickering candles, the like of which he had never
+seen before, Camors proceeded to inspect the quaint portraits of his
+ancestors, who seemed to stare at him in great surprise from their
+cracked canvases.  They were a dilapidated set of old nobles, one having
+lost a nose, another an arm, others again sections of their faces.  One
+of them--a chevalier of St. Louis--had received a bayonet thrust through
+the centre in the riotous times of the Revolution; but he still smiled at
+Camors, and sniffed at a flower, despite the daylight shining through
+him.
+
+Camors finished his inspection, thinking to himself they were a highly
+respectable set of ancestors, but not worth fifteen francs apiece.  The
+housekeeper had passed half the previous night in slaughtering various
+dwellers in the poultry-yard; and the results of the sacrifice now
+successively appeared, swimming in butter.  Happily, however, the
+fatherly kindness of the General had despatched a hamper of provisions
+from Campvallon, and a few slices of pate, accompanied by sundry glasses
+of Chateau-Yquem helped the Count to combat the dreary sadness with which
+his change of residence, solitude, the night, and the smoke of his
+candles, all conspired to oppress him.
+
+Regaining his usual good spirits, which had deserted him for a moment, he
+tried to draw out the old steward, who was waiting on him.  He strove to
+glean from him some information of the Des Rameures; but the old servant,
+like every Norman peasant, held it as a tenet of faith that he who gave a
+plain answer to any question was a dishonored man.  With all possible
+respect he let Camors understand plainly that he was not to be deceived
+by his affected ignorance into any belief that M. le Comte did not know a
+great deal better than he who and what M. des Rameures was--where he
+lived, and what he did; that M. le Comte was his master, and as such was
+entitled to his respect, but that he was nevertheless a Parisian, and--
+as M. des Rameures said--all Parisians were jesters.
+
+Camors, who had taken an oath never to get angry, kept it now; drew from
+the General's old cognac a fresh supply of patience, lighted a cigar, and
+left the room.
+
+For a few moments he leaned over the balustrade of the terrace and looked
+around.  The night, clear and beautiful, enveloped in its shadowy veil
+the widestretching fields, and a solemn stillness, strange to Parisian
+ears, reigned around him, broken only at intervals by the distant bay of
+a hound, rising suddenly, and dying into peace again.  His eyes becoming
+accustomed to the darkness, Camors descended the terrace stairs and
+passed into the old avenue, which was darker and more solemn than a
+cathedral-aisle at midnight, and thence into an open road into which it
+led by chance.
+
+Strictly speaking, Camors had never, until now, been out of Paris; for
+wherever he had previously gone, he had carried its bustle, worldly and
+artificial life, play, and the races with him; and the watering-places
+and the seaside had never shown him true country, or provincial life.
+It gave him a sensation for the first time; but the sensation was an
+odious one.
+
+As he advanced up this silent road, without houses or lights, it seemed
+to him he was wandering amid the desolation of some lunar region.  This
+part of Normandy recalled to him the least cultivated parts of Brittany.
+It was rustic and savage, with its dense shrubbery, tufted grass, dark
+valleys, and rough roads.
+
+Some dreamers love this sweet but severe nature, even at night; they love
+the very things that grated most upon the pampered senses of Camors, who
+strode on in deep disgust, flattering himself, however, that he should
+soon reach the Boulevard de Madeleine.  But he found, instead, peasants'
+huts scattered along the side of the road, their low, mossy roofs seeming
+to spring from the rich soil like an enormous fungus growth.  Two or
+three of the dwellers in these huts were taking the fresh evening air on
+their thresholds, and Camors could distinguish through the gloom their
+heavy figures and limbs, roughened by coarse toil in the fields, as they
+stood mute, motionless, and ruminating in the darkness like tired beasts.
+
+Camors, like all men possessed by a dominant idea, had, ever since he
+adopted the religion of his father as his rule of life, taken the pains
+to analyze every impression and every thought.  He now said to himself,
+that between these countrymen and a refined man like himself there was
+doubtless a greater difference than between them and their beasts of
+burden; and this reflection was as balm to the scornful aristocracy that
+was the cornerstone of his theory.  Wandering on to an eminence, his
+discouraged eye swept but a fresh horizon of apple-trees and heads of
+barley, and he was about to turn back when a strange sound suddenly
+arrested his steps.  It was a concert of voice and instruments, which in
+this lost solitude seemed to him like a dream, or a miracle.  The music
+was good-even excellent.  He recognized a prelude of Bach, arranged by
+Gounod.  Robinson Crusoe, on discovering the footprint in the sand, was
+not more astonished than Camors at finding in this desert so lively a
+symptom of civilization.
+
+Filled with curiosity, and led by the melody he heard, he descended
+cautiously the little hill, like a king's son in search of the enchanted
+princess.  The palace he found in the middle of the path, in the shape of
+the high back wall of a dwelling, fronting on another road.  One of the
+upper windows on this side, however, was open; a bright light streamed
+from it, and thence he doubted not the sweet sounds came.
+
+To an accompaniment of the piano and stringed instruments rose a fresh,
+flexible woman's voice, chanting the mystic words of the master with such
+expression and power as would have given even him delight.  Camors,
+himself a musician, was capable of appreciating the masterly execution of
+the piece; and was so much struck by it that he felt an irresistible
+desire to see the performers, especially the singer.  With this impulse
+he climbed the little hedge bordering the road, placed himself on the
+top, and found himself several feet above the level of the lighted
+window.  He did not hesitate to use his skill as a gymnast to raise
+himself to one of the branches of an old oak stretching across the lawn;
+but during the ascent he could not disguise from himself that his was
+scarcely a dignified position for the future deputy of the district.  He
+almost laughed aloud at the idea of being surprised in this position by
+the terrible Des Rameures, or his niece.
+
+He established himself on a large, leafy branch, directly in front of the
+interesting window; and notwithstanding that he was at a respectful
+distance, his glance could readily penetrate into the chamber where the
+concert was taking place.  A dozen persons, as he judged, were there
+assembled; several women, of different ages, were seated at a table
+working; a young man appeared to be drawing; while other persons lounged
+on comfortable seats around the room.  Around the piano was a group which
+chiefly attracted the attention of the young Count.  At the instrument
+was seated a grave young girl of about twelve years; immediately behind
+her stood an old man, remarkable for his great height, his head bald,
+with a crown of white hair, and his bushy black eyebrows.  He played the
+violin with priestly dignity.  Seated near him was a man of about fifty,
+in the dress of an ecclesiastic, and wearing a huge pair of silver-rimmed
+spectacles, who played the violincello with great apparent gusto.
+
+Between them stood the singer.  She was a pale brunette, slight and
+graceful, and apparently not more than twenty-five years of age.  The
+somewhat severe oval of her face was relieved by a pair of bright black
+eyes that seemed to grow larger as she sang.  One hand rested gently on
+the shoulder of the girl at the piano, and with this she seemed to keep
+time, pressing gently on the shoulder of the performer to stimulate her
+zeal.  And that hand was delicious!
+
+A hymn by Palestrina had succeeded the Bach prelude.  It was a quartette,
+to which two new voices lent their aid.  The old priest laid aside his
+violoncello, stood up, took off his spectacles, and his deep bass
+completed the full measure of the melody.
+
+After the quartette followed a few moments of general conversation,
+during which--after embracing the child pianist, who immediately left the
+room--the songstress walked to the window.  She leaned out as if to
+breathe the fresh air, and her profile was sharply relieved against the
+bright light behind her, in which the others formed a group around the
+priest, who once more donned his spectacles, and drew from his pocket a
+paper that appeared to be a manuscript.
+
+The lady leaned from the window, gently fanning herself, as she looked
+now at the sky, now at the dark landscape.  Camors imagined he could
+distinguish her gentle breathing above the sound of the fan; and leaning
+eagerly forward for a better view, he caused the leaves to rustle
+slightly.  She started at the sound, then remained immovable, and the
+fixed position of her head showed that her gaze was fastened upon the oak
+in which he was concealed.
+
+He felt the awkwardness of his position, but could not judge whether or
+not he was visible to her; but, under the danger of her fixed regard, he
+passed the most painful moments of his life.
+
+She turned into the room and said, in a calm voice, a few words which
+brought three or four of her friends to the window; and among them Camors
+recognized the old man with the violin.
+
+The moment was a trying one.  He could do nothing but lie still in his
+leafy retreat--silent and immovable as a statue.  The conduct of those at
+the window went far to reassure him, for their eyes wandered over the
+gloom with evident uncertainty, convincing him that his presence was only
+suspected, not discovered.  But they exchanged animated observations, to
+which the hidden Count lent an attentive ear.  Suddenly a strong voice--
+which he recognized as belonging to him of the violin-rose over them all
+in the pleasing order: "Loose the dog!"
+
+This was sufficient for Camors.  He was not a coward; he would not have
+budged an inch before an enraged tiger; but he would have travelled a
+hundred miles on foot to avoid the shadow of ridicule.  Profiting by the
+warning and a moment when he seemed unobserved, he slid from the tree,
+jumped into the next field, and entered the wood at a point somewhat
+farther down than the spot where he had scaled the hedge.  This done, he
+resumed his walk with the assured tread of a man who had a right to be
+there.  He had gone but a few steps, when he heard behind him the wild
+barking of the dog, which proved his retreat had been opportune.
+
+Some of the peasants he had noticed as he passed before, were still
+standing at their doors.  Stopping before one of them he asked:
+
+"My friend, to whom does that large house below there, facing the other
+road, belong?  and whence comes that music?"
+
+"You probably know that as well as I," replied the man, stolidly.
+
+"Had I known, I should hardly have asked you," said Camors.
+
+The peasant did not deign further reply.  His wife stood near him; and
+Camors had remarked that in all classes of society women have more wit
+and goodhumor than their husbands.  Therefore he turned to her and said:
+
+"You see, my good woman, I am a stranger here.  To whom does that house
+belong?  Probably to Monsieur des Rameures?"
+
+"No, no," replied the woman, "Monsieur des Rameures lives much farther
+on."
+
+"Ah!  Then who lives here?"
+
+"Why, Monsieur de Tecle, of course!"
+
+"Ah, Monsieur de Tecle!  But tell me, he does not live alone?  There is a
+lady who sings--his wife?--his sister?  Who is she?"
+
+"Ah, that is his daughter-in-law, Madame de Tecle Madame Elise, who--"
+
+"Ah!  thank you, thank you, my good woman!  You have children?  Buy them
+sabots with this," and drop ping a gold piece in the lap of the obliging
+peasant, Camors walked rapidly away.  Returning home the road seemed less
+gloomy and far shorter than when he came.  As he strode on, humming the
+Bach prelude, the moon rose, the country looked more beautiful, and, in
+short, when he perceived, at the end of its gloomy avenue, his chateau
+bathed in the white light, he found the spectacle rather enjoyable than
+otherwise.  And when he had once more ensconced himself in the maternal
+domicile, and inhaled the odor of damp paper and mouldy trees that
+constituted its atmosphere, he found great consolation in the reflection
+that there existed not very far away from him a young woman who possessed
+a charming face, a delicious voice, and a pretty name.
+
+Next morning, after plunging into a cold bath, to the profound
+astonishment of the old steward and his wife, the Comte de Camors went to
+inspect his farms.  He found the buildings very similar in construction
+to the dams of beavers, though far less comfortable; but he was amazed to
+hear his farmers arguing, in their patois, on the various modes of
+culture and crops, like men who were no strangers to all modern
+improvements in agriculture.  The name of Des Rameures frequently
+occurred in the conversation as confirmation of their own theories, or
+experiments.  M. des Rameures gave preference to this manure, to this
+machine for winnowing; this breed of animals was introduced by him.  M.
+des Rameures did this, M. des Rameures did that, and the farmers did like
+him, and found it to their advantage.  Camors found the General had not
+exaggerated the local importance of this personage, and that it was most
+essential to conciliate him.  Resolving therefore to call on him during
+the day, he went to breakfast.
+
+This duty toward himself fulfilled, the young Count lounged on the
+terrace, as he had the evening before, and smoked his cigar.  Though it
+was near midday, it was doubtful to him whether the solitude and silence
+appeared less complete and oppressive than on the preceding night.  A
+hushed cackling of fowls, the drowsy hum of bees, and the muffled chime
+of a distant bell--these were all the sounds to be heard.
+
+Camors lounged on the terrace, dreaming of his club, of the noisy Paris
+crowd, of the rumbling omnibuses, of the playbill of the little kiosk,
+of the scent of heated asphalt--and the memory of the least of these
+enchantments brought infinite peace to his soul.  The inhabitant of Paris
+has one great blessing, which he does not take into account until he
+suffers from its loss--one great half of his existence is filled up
+without the least trouble to himself.  The all-potent vitality which
+ceaselessly envelops him takes away from him in a vast degree the
+exertion of amusing himself.  The roar of the city, rising like a great
+bass around him, fills up the gaps in his thoughts, and never leaves that
+disagreeable sensation--a void.
+
+There is no Parisian who is not happy in the belief that he makes all the
+noise he hears, writes all the books he reads, edits all the journals on
+which he breakfasts, writes all the vaudevilles on which he sups, and
+invents all the 'bon mots' he repeats.
+
+But this flattering allusion vanishes the moment chance takes him a mile
+away from the Rue Vivienne.  The proof confounds him, for he is bored
+terribly, and becomes sick of himself.  Perhaps his secret soul, weakened
+and unnerved, may even be assailed by the suspicion that he is a feeble
+human creature after all!  But no!  He returns to Paris; the collective
+electricity again inspires him; he rebounds; he recovers; he is busy,
+keen to discern, active, and recognizes once more, to his intense
+satisfaction, that he is after all one of the elect of God's creatures--
+momentarily degraded, it may be, by contact with the inferior beings who
+people the departments.
+
+Camors had within himself more resources than most men to conquer the
+blue-devils; but in these early hours of his experience in country life,
+deprived of his club, his horses, and his cook, banished from all his old
+haunts and habits, he began to feel terribly the weight of time.  He,
+therefore, experienced a delicious sensation when suddenly he heard that
+regular beat of hoofs upon the road which to his trained ear announced
+the approach of several riding-horses.  The next moment he saw advancing
+up his shaded avenue two ladies on horseback, followed by a groom with a
+black cockade.
+
+Though quite amazed at this charming spectacle, Camors remembered his
+duty as a gentleman and descended the steps of the terrace.  But the two
+ladies, at sight of him, appeared as surprised as himself, suddenly drew
+rein and conferred hastily.  Then, recovering, they continued their way,
+traversed the lower court below the terraces, and disappeared in the
+direction of the lake.
+
+As they passed the lower balustrade Camors bowed low, and they returned
+his salutation by a slight inclination; but he was quite sure, in spite
+of the veils that floated from their riding-hats, that he recognized the
+black-eyed singer and the young pianist.  After a moment he called to his
+old steward
+
+"Monsieur Leonard," he said, "is this a public way?"
+
+"It certainly is not a public way, Monsieur le Comte," replied Leonard.
+
+"Then what do these ladies mean by using this road?"
+
+"Bless me, Monsieur le Comte, it is so long since any of the owners have
+been at Reuilly!  These ladies mean no harm by passing through your
+woods; and sometimes they even stop at the chateau while my wife gives
+them fresh milk.  Shall I tell them that this displeases Monsieur le
+Comte?"
+
+"My good Leonard, why the deuce do you suppose it displeases me?  I only
+asked for information.  And now who are the ladies?"
+
+"Oh!  Monsieur, they are quite respectable ladies; Madame de Tecle, and
+her daughter, Mademoiselle Marie."
+
+"So?  And the husband of Madame, Monsieur de Tecle, never rides out with
+them?"
+
+"Heavens!  no, Monsieur.  He never rides with them."  And the old steward
+smiled a dry smile.  "He has been among the dead men for a long time, as
+Monsieur le Comte well knows."
+
+"Granting that I know it, Monsieur Leonard, I wish it understood these
+ladies are not to be interfered with.  You comprehend?"
+
+Leonard seemed pleased that he was not to be the bearer of any
+disagreeable message; and Camors, suddenly conceiving that his stay at
+Reuilly might be prolonged for some time, reentered the chateau and
+examined the different rooms, arranging with the steward the best plan of
+making the house habitable.  The little town of I------, but two leagues
+distant, afforded all the means, and M. Leonard proposed going there at
+once to confer with the architect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ELISE DE TECLE
+
+Meantime Camors directed his steps toward the residence of M. des
+Rameures, of which he at last obtained correct information.  He took the
+same road as the preceding evening, passed the monastic-looking building
+that held Madame de Tecle, glanced at the old oak that had served him for
+an observatory, and about a mile farther on he discovered the small house
+with towers that he sought.
+
+It could only be compared to those imaginary edifices of which we have
+all read in childhood's happy days in taking text, under an attractive
+picture: "The castle of M. de Valmont was agreeably situated at the
+summit of a pretty hill."  It had a really picturesque surrounding of
+fields sloping away, green as emerald, dotted here and there with great
+bouquets of trees, or cut by walks adorned with huge roses or white
+bridges thrown over rivulets.  Cattle and sheep were resting here and
+there, which might have figured at the Opera Comique, so shining were the
+skins of the cows and so white the wool of the sheep.  Camors swung open
+the gate, took the first road he saw, and reached the top of the hill
+amid trees and flowers.  An old servant slept on a bench before the door,
+smiling in his dreams.
+
+Camors waked him, inquired for the master of the house, and was ushered
+into a vestibule.  Thence he entered a charming apartment, where a young
+lady in a short skirt and round hat was arranging bouquets in Chinese
+vases.
+
+She turned at the noise of the opening door, and Camors saw--Madame de
+Tecle!
+
+As he saluted her with an air of astonishment and doubt, she looked
+fixedly at him with her large eyes.  He spoke first, with more of
+hesitation than usual.
+
+"Pardon me, Madame, but I inquired for Monsieur des Rameures."
+
+"He is at the farm, but will soon return.  Be kind enough to wait."
+
+She pointed to a chair, and seated herself, pushing away with her foot
+the branches that strewed the floor.
+
+"But, Madame, in the absence of Monsieur des Rameures may I have the
+honor of speaking with his niece?"
+
+The shadow of a smile flitted over Madame de Tecle's brown but charming
+face.  "His niece?"  she said: "I am his niece."
+
+"You I Pardon me, Madame, but I thought--they said--I expected to find an
+elderly--a--person--that is, a respectable" he hesitated, then added
+simply" and I find I am in error."
+
+Madame de Tecle seemed completely unmoved by this compliment.
+
+"Will you be kind enough, Monsieur," she said, "to let me know whom I
+have the honor of receiving?"
+
+"I am Monsieur de Camors."
+
+"Ah!  Then I have excuses also to make.  It was probably you whom we saw
+this morning.  We have been very rude--my daughter and I--but we were
+ignorant of your arrival; and Reuilly has been so long deserted."
+
+"I sincerely hope, Madame, that your daughter and yourself will make no
+change in your rides."
+
+Madame de Tecle replied by a movement of the hand that implied certainly
+she appreciated the offer, and certainly she should not accept it.  Then
+there was a pause long enough to embarrass Camors, during which his eye
+fell upon the piano, and his lips almost formed the original remark--
+"You are a musician, Madame."  Suddenly recollecting his tree, however,
+he feared to betray himself by the allusion, and was silent.
+
+"You come from Paris, Monsieur de Camors?"  Madame de Tecle at length
+asked.
+
+"No, Madame, I have been passing several weeks with my kinsman, General
+de Campvallon, who has also the honor, I believe, to be a friend of
+yours; and who has requested me to call upon you."
+
+"We are delighted that you have done so; and what an excellent man the
+General is!"
+
+"Excellent indeed, Madame."  There was another pause.
+
+"If you do not object to a short walk in the sun," said Madame de Tecle
+at length, "let us walk to meet my uncle.  We are almost sure to meet
+him."  Camors bowed.  Madame de Tecle rose and rang the bell: "Ask
+Mademoiselle Marie," she said to the servant, "to be kind enough to put
+on her hat and join us."
+
+A moment after, Mademoiselle Marie entered, cast on the stranger the
+steady, frank look of an inquisitive child, bowed slightly to him, and
+they all left the room by a door opening on the lawn.
+
+Madame de Tecle, while responding courteously to the graceful speeches of
+Camors, walked on with a light and rapid step, her fairy-like little
+shoes leaving their impression on the smooth fine sand of the path.
+
+She walked with indescribable, unconscious grace; with that supple,
+elastic undulation which would have been coquettish had it not been
+undeniably natural.  Reaching the wall that enclosed the right side of
+the park, she opened a wicket that led into a narrow path through a large
+field of ripe corn.  She passed into this path, followed in single file
+by Mademoiselle Marie and by Camors.  Until now the child had been very
+quiet, but the rich golden corn-tassels, entangled with bright daisies,
+red poppies, and hollyhocks, and the humming concert of myriads of flies-
+blue, yellow, and reddishbrownwhich sported amid the sweets, excited her
+beyond self-control.  Stopping here and there to pluck a flower, she
+would turn and cry, "Pardon, Monsieur;" until, at length, on an apple-
+tree growing near the path she descried on a low branch a green apple, no
+larger than her finger.  This temptation proved irresistible, and with
+one spring into the midst of the corn, she essayed to reach the prize, if
+Providence would permit.  Madame de Tecle, however, would not permit.
+She seemed much displeased, and said, sharply:
+
+"Marie, my child!  In the midst of the corn!  Are you crazy!"
+
+The child returned promptly to the path, but unable to conquer her wish
+for the apple, turned an imploring eye to Camors and said, softly:
+"Pardon, Monsieur, but that apple would make my bouquet complete."
+
+Camors had only to reach up, stretch out his hand, and detach the branch
+from the tree.
+
+"A thousand thanks!"  cried the child, and adding this crowning glory to
+her bouquet, she placed the whole inside the ribbon around her hat and
+walked on with an air of proud satisfaction.
+
+As they approached the fence running across the end of the field, Madame
+de Tecle suddenly said: "My uncle, Monsieur;" and Camors, raising his
+head, saw a very tall man looking at them over the fence and shading his
+eyes with his hand.  His robust limbs were clad in gaiters of yellow
+leather with steel buttons, and he wore a loose coat of maroon velvet and
+a soft felt hat.  Camors immediately recognized the white hair and heavy
+black eyebrows as the same he had seen bending over the violin the night
+before.
+
+"Uncle," said Madame de Tecle, introducing the young Count by a wave of
+the hand: "This is Monsieur de Camors."
+
+"Monsieur de Camors," repeated the old man, in a deep and sonorous voice,
+"you are most welcome;" and opening the gate he gave his guest a soft,
+brown hand, as he continued: "I knew your mother intimately, and am
+charmed to have her son under my roof.  Your mother was a most amiable
+person, Monsieur, and certainly merited--" The old man hesitated, and
+finished his sentence by a sonorous "Hem!"  that resounded and rumbled
+in his chest as if in the vault of a church.
+
+Then he took the letter Camors handed to him, held it a long distance
+from his eyes, and began reading it.  The General had told the Count it
+would be impolite to break suddenly to M. des Rameures the plan they had
+concocted.  The latter, therefore, found the note only a very warm
+introduction of Camors.  The postscript gave him the announcement of the
+marriage.
+
+"The devil!"  he cried.  "Did you know this, Elise?  Campvallon is to be
+married!"
+
+All women, widows, matrons, or maids, are deeply interested in matters
+pertaining to marriage.
+
+"What, uncle!  The General!  Can it be?  Are you sure?"
+
+"Um--rather.  He writes the news himself.  Do you know the lady, Monsieur
+le Comte?"
+
+"Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles is my cousin," Camors replied.
+
+"Ah!  That is right; and she is of a certain age?"
+
+"She is about twenty-five."
+
+M. des Rameures received this intelligence with one of the resonant
+coughs peculiar to him.
+
+"May I ask, without indiscretion, whether she is endowed with a pleasing
+person?"
+
+"She is exceedingly beautiful," was the reply.
+
+"Hem!  So much the better.  It seems to me the General is a little old
+for her: but every one is the best judge of his own affairs: Hem!  the
+best judge of his own affairs.  Elise, my dear, whenever you are ready we
+will follow you.  Pardon me, Monsieur le Comte, for receiving you in this
+rustic attire, but I am a laborer.  Agricola--a mere herdsman--'custos
+gregis', as the poet says.  Walk before me, Monsieur le Comte, I beg you.
+Marie, child, respect my corn!
+
+"And can we hope, Monsieur de Camors, that you have the happy idea of
+quitting the great Babylon to install yourself among your rural
+possessions?  It will be a good example, Monsieur--an excellent example!
+For unhappily today more than ever we can say with the poet:
+
+                            'Non ullus aratro
+
+               Dignus honos; squalent abductis arva colonis,
+               Et--et--'
+
+"And, by gracious!  I've forgotten the rest--poor memory!  Ah, young sir,
+never grow old-never grow old!"
+
+               "'Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem,"'
+
+said Camors, continuing the broken quotation.
+
+"Ah!  you quote Virgil.  You read the classics.  I am charmed, really
+charmed.  That is not the characteristic of our rising generation, for
+modern youth has an idea it is bad taste to quote the ancients.  But that
+is not my idea, young sir--not in the least.  Our fathers quoted freely
+because they were familiar with them.  And Virgil is my poet.  Not that I
+approve of all his theories of cultivation.  With all the respect I
+accord him, there is a great deal to be said on that point; and his plan
+of breeding in particular will never do--never do!  Still, he is
+delicious, eh?  Very well, Monsieur Camors, now you see my little domain
+--'mea paupera regna'--the retreat of the sage.  Here I live, and live
+happily, like an old shepherd in the golden age--loved by my neighbors,
+which is not easy; and venerating the gods, which is perhaps easier.  Ah,
+young sir, as you read Virgil, you will excuse me once more.  It was for
+me he wrote:
+
+              'Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota,
+               Et fontes sacros frigus captabis opacum.'
+
+And this as well:
+
+              'Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes,
+               Panaque, Silvanumque senem!'"
+
+"Nymphasque sorores!"  finished Camors, smiling and moving his head
+slightly in the direction of Madame de Tecle and her daughter, who
+preceded them.
+
+"Quite to the point.  That is pure truth!"  cried M. des Rameures, gayly.
+"Did you hear that, niece?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"And did you understand it, niece?"
+
+"No, uncle."
+
+"I do not believe you, my dear!  I do not believe you!"  The old man
+laughed heartily.  "Do not believe her, Monsieur de Camors; women have
+the faculty of understanding compliments in every language."
+
+This conversation brought them to the chateau, where they sat down on a
+bench before the drawing-room windows to enjoy the view.
+
+Camors praised judiciously the well-kept park, accepted an invitation to
+dinner the next week, and then discreetly retired, flattering himself
+that his introduction had made a favorable impression upon M. des
+Rameures, but regretting his apparent want of progress with the fairy-
+footed niece.
+
+He was in error.
+
+"This youth," said M. des Rameures, when he was left alone with Madame de
+Tecle, "has some touch of the ancients, which is something; but he still
+resembles his father, who was vicious as sin itself.  His eyes and his
+smile recall some traits of his admirable mother; but positively, my dear
+Elise, he is the portrait of his father, whose manners and whose
+principles they say he has inherited."
+
+"Who says so, uncle?"
+
+"Current rumor, niece."
+
+"Current rumor, my dear uncle, is often mistaken, and always exaggerates.
+For my part, I like the young man, who seems thoroughly refined and at
+his ease."
+
+"Bah!  I suppose because he compared you to a nymph in the fable."
+
+"If he compared me to a nymph in the fable he was wrong; but he never
+addressed to me a word in French that was not in good taste.  Before we
+condemn him, uncle, let us see for ourselves.  It is a habit you have
+always recommended to me, you know."
+
+"You can not deny, niece," said the old man with irritation, "that he
+exhales the most decided and disagreeable odor of Paris!  He is too
+polite--too studied!  Not a shadow of enthusiasm--no fire of youth!
+He never laughs as I should wish to see a man of his age laugh; a young
+man should roar to split his waistband!"
+
+"What!  you would see him merry so soon after losing his father in such a
+tragic manner, and he himself nearly ruined!  Why, uncle, what can you
+mean?"
+
+"Well, well, perhaps you are right.  I retract all I have said against
+him.  If he be half ruined I will offer him my advice--and my purse if he
+need it--for the sake of the memory of his mother, whom you resemble.
+Ah, 'tis thus we end all our disputes, naughty child!  I grumble; I am
+passionate; I act like a Tartar.  Then you speak with your good sense and
+sweetness, my darling, and the tiger becomes a lamb.  All unhappy beings
+whom you approach in the same way submit to your subtle charm.  And that
+is the reason why my old friend, La Fontaine, said of you:
+
+              'Sur differentes fleurs l'abeille se repose,
+               Et fait du miel de toute chose!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A DISH OF POLITICS
+
+Elise de Tecle was thirty years of age, but appeared much younger.  At
+seventeen she had married, under peculiar conditions, her cousin Roland
+de Tecle.  She had been left an orphan at an early age and educated by
+her mother's brother, M. des Rameures.  Roland lived very near her
+Everything brought them together--the wishes of the family, compatibility
+of fortune, their relations as neighbors, and a personal sympathy.  They
+were both charming; they were destined for each other from infancy, and
+the time fixed for their marriage was the nineteenth birthday of Elise.
+In anticipation of this happy event the.  Comte de Tecle rebuilt almost
+entirely one wing of his castle for the exclusive use of the young pair.
+Roland was continually present, superintending and urging on the work
+with all the ardor of a lover.
+
+One morning loud and alarming cries from the new wing roused all the
+inhabitants of the castle; the Count burned to the spot, and found his
+son stunned and bleeding in the arms of one of the workmen.  He had
+fallen from a high scaffolding to the pavement.  For several months the
+unfortunate young man hovered between life and death; but in the
+paroxysms of fever he never ceased calling for his cousin--his betrothed;
+and they were obliged to admit the young girl to his bedside.  Slowly he
+recovered, but was ever after disfigured and lame; and the first time
+they allowed him to look in a glass he had a fainting-fit that proved
+almost fatal.
+
+But he was a youth of high principle and true courage.  On recovering
+from his swoon he wept a flood of bitter tears, which would not, however,
+wash the scars from his disfigured face.  He prayed long and earnestly;
+then shut himself up with his father.  Each wrote a letter, the one to M.
+des Rameures, the other to Elise.  M. des Rameures and his niece were
+then in Germany.  The excitement and fatigue consequent upon nursing her
+cousin had so broken her health that the physicians urged a trial of the
+baths of Ems.  There she received these letters; they released her from
+her engagement and gave her absolute liberty.
+
+Roland and his father implored her not to return in haste; explained that
+their intention was to leave the country in a few weeks' time and
+establish themselves at Paris; and added that they expected no answer,
+and that their resolution--impelled by simple justice to her--was
+irrevocable.
+
+Their wishes were complied with.  No answer came.
+
+Roland, his sacrifice once made, seemed calm and resigned; but he fell
+into a sort of languor, which made fearful progress and hinted at a
+speedy and fatal termination, for which in fact he seemed to long.  One
+evening they had taken him to the lime-tree terrace at the foot of the
+garden.  He gazed with absent eye on the tints with which the setting sun
+purpled the glades of the wood, while his father paced the terrace with
+long strides-smiling as he passed him and hastily brushing away a tear as
+he turned his back.
+
+Suddenly Elise de Tecle appeared before them, like an angel dropped from
+heaven.  She knelt before the crippled youth, kissed his hand, and,
+brightening him with the rays of her beautiful eyes, told him she never
+had loved him half so well before.  He felt she spoke truly; he accepted
+her devotion, and they were married soon after.
+
+Madame de Tecle was happy--but she alone was so.  Her husband,
+notwithstanding the tenderness with which she treated him--
+notwithstanding the happiness which he could not fail to read in her
+tranquil glance--notwithstanding the birth of a daughter--seemed never to
+console himself.  Even with her he was always possessed by a cold
+constraint; some secret sorrow consumed him, of which they found the key
+only on the day of his death.
+
+"My darling," he then said to his young wife--"my darling, may God reward
+you for your infinite goodness!  Pardon me, if I never have told you how
+entirely I love you.  With a face like mine, how could I speak of love to
+one like you!  But my poor heart has been brimming over with it all the
+while.  Oh, Elise!  how I have suffered when I thought of what I was
+before--how much more worthy of you!  But we shall be reunited, dearest--
+shall we not?--where I shall be as perfect as you, and where I may tell
+you how much I adore you!  Do not weep for me, my own Elise!  I am happy
+now, for the first time, for I have dared to open my heart to you.  Dying
+men do not fear ridicule.  Farewell, Elise--darling-wife!  I love you!"
+These tender words were his last.
+
+After her husband's death, Madame de Tecle lived with her father-in-law,
+but passed much of her time with her uncle.  She busied herself with the
+greatest solicitude in the education of her daughter, and kept house for
+both the old men, by both of whom she was equally idolized.
+
+From the lips of the priest at Reuilly, whom he called on next day,
+Camors learned some of these details, while the old man practiced the
+violoncello with his heavy spectacles on his nose.  Despite his fixed
+resolution of preserving universal scorn, Camors could not resist a vague
+feeling of respect for Madame de Tecle; but it did not entirely eradicate
+the impure sentiment he was disposed to dedicate to her.  Fully
+determined to make her, if not his victim, at least his ally, he felt
+that this enterprise was one of unusual difficulty.  But he was
+energetic, and did not object to difficulties--especially when they took
+such charming shape as in the present instance.
+
+His meditations on this theme occupied him agreeably the rest of that
+week, during which time he overlooked his workmen and conferred with his
+architect.  Besides, his horses, his books, his domestics, and his
+journals arrived successively to dispel ennui.  Therefore he looked
+remarkably well when he jumped out of his dog-cart the ensuing Monday in
+front of M. des Rameures's door under the eyes of Madame de Tecle.  As
+the latter gently stroked with her white hand the black and smoking
+shoulder of the thoroughbred Fitz-Aymon, Camors was for the first time
+presented to the Comte de Tecle, a quiet, sad, and taciturn old
+gentleman.  The cure, the subprefect of the district and his wife, the
+tax-collector, the family physician, and the tutor completed, as the
+journals say, the list of the guests.
+
+During dinner Camors, secretly excited by the immediate vicinity of
+Madame de Tecle, essayed to triumph over that hostility that the presence
+of a stranger invariably excites in the midst of intimacies which it
+disturbs.  His calm superiority asserted itself so mildly it was pardoned
+for its grace.  Without a gayety unbecoming his mourning, he nevertheless
+made such lively sallies and such amusing jokes about his first mishaps
+at Reuilly as to break up the stiffness of the party.  He conversed
+pleasantly with each one in turn, and, seeming to take the deepest
+interest in his affairs, put him at once at his ease.
+
+He skilfully gave M. des Rameures the opportunity for several happy
+quotations; spoke naturally to him of artificial pastures, and
+artificially of natural pastures; of breeding and of non-breeding cows;
+of Dishley sheep--and of a hundred other matters he had that morning
+crammed from an old encyclopaedia and a county almanac.
+
+To Madame de Tecle directly he spoke little, but he did not speak one
+word during the dinner that was not meant for her; and his manner to
+women was so caressing, yet so chivalric, as to persuade them, even while
+pouring out their wine, that he was ready to die for them.  The dear
+charmers thought him a good, simple fellow, while he was the exact
+reverse.
+
+On leaving the table they went out of doors to enjoy the starlight
+evening, and M. des Rameures--whose natural hospitality was somewhat
+heightened by a goblet of his own excellent wine--said to Camors:
+
+"My dear Count, you eat honestly, you talk admirably, you drink like a
+man.  On my word, I am disposed to regard you as perfection--as a paragon
+of neighbors--if in addition to all the rest you add the crowning one.
+Do you love music?"
+
+"Passionately!"  answered Camors, with effusion.
+
+"Passionately?  Bravo!  That is the way one should love everything that
+is worth loving.  I am delighted, for we make here a troupe of fanatical
+melomaniacs, as you will presently perceive.  As for myself, I scrape
+wildly on the violin, as a simple country amateur--'Orpheus in silvis'.
+Do not imagine, however, Monsieur le Comte, that we let the worship of
+this sweet art absorb all our faculties--all our time-certainly not.
+When you take part in our little reunions, which of course you will do,
+you will find we disdain no pursuit worthy of thinking beings.  We pass
+from music to literature--to science--even to philosophy; but we do this
+--I pray you to believe--without pedantry and without leaving the tone of
+familiar converse.  Sometimes we read verses, but we never make them; we
+love the ancients and do not fear the moderns: we only fear those who
+would lower the mind and debase the heart.  We love the past while we
+render justice to the present; and flatter ourselves at not seeing many
+things that to you appear beautiful, useful, and true.
+
+"Such are we, my young friend.  We call ourselves the 'Colony of
+Enthusiasts,' but our malicious neighbors call us the 'Hotel de
+Rambouillet.'  Envy, you know, is a plant that does not flourish in the
+country; but here, by way of exception, we have a few jealous people--
+rather bad for them, but of no consequence to us.
+
+"We are an odd set, with the most opposite opinions.  For me, I am a
+Legitimist; then there is Durocher, my physician and friend, who is a
+rabid Republican; Hedouin, the tutor, is a parliamentarian; while
+Monsieur our sub-prefect is a devotee to the government, as it is his
+duty to be.  Our cure is a little Roman--I am Gallican--'et sic ceteris'.
+Very well--we all agree wonderfully for two reasons: first, because we
+are sincere, which is a very rare thing; and then because all opinions
+contain at bottom some truth, and because, with some slight mutual
+concessions, all really honest people come very near having the same
+opinions.
+
+"Such, my dear Count, are the views that hold in my drawing-room, or
+rather in the drawing-room of my niece; for if you would see the divinity
+who makes all our happiness--look at her!  It is in deference to her good
+taste, her good sense, and her moderation, that each of us avoids that
+violence and that passion which warps the best intentions.  In one word,
+to speak truly, it is love that makes our common tie and our mutual
+protection.  We are all in love with my niece--myself first, of course;
+next Durocher, for thirty years; then the subprefect and all the rest of
+them.
+
+"You, too, Cure!  you know that you are in love with Elise, in all honor
+and all good faith, as we all are, and as Monsieur de Camors shall soon
+be, if he is not so already--eh, Monsieur le Comte?"
+
+Camors protested, with a sinister smile, that he felt very much inclined
+to fulfil the prophecy of his host; and they reentered the dining-room to
+find the circle increased by the arrival of several visitors.  Some of
+these rode, others came on foot from the country-seats around.
+
+M. des Rameures soon seized his violin; while he tuned it, little Marie
+seated herself at the piano, and her mother, coming behind her, rested
+her hand lightly on her shoulder, as if to beat the measure.
+
+"The music will be nothing new to you," Camors's host said to him.  "It
+is simply Schubert's Serenade, which we have arranged, or deranged, after
+our own fancy; of which you shall judge.  My niece sings, and the curate
+and I--'Arcades ambo'--respond successively--he on the bass-viol and I on
+my Stradivarius.  Come, my dear Cure, let us begin--'incipe, Mopse,
+prior."
+
+In spite of the masterly execution of the old gentleman and of the
+delicate science of the cure, it was Madame de Tecle who appeared to
+Camors the most remarkable of the three virtuosi.  The calm repose of her
+features, and the gentle dignity of her attitude, contrasting with the
+passionate swell of her voice, he found most attractive.
+
+In his turn he seated himself at the piano, and played a difficult
+accompaniment with real taste; and having a good tenor voice, and a
+thorough knowledge of its powers, he exerted them so effectually as to
+produce a profound sensation.  During the rest of the evening he kept
+much in the background in order to observe the company, and was much
+astonished thereby.  The tone of this little society, as much removed
+from vulgar gossip as from affected pedantry, was truly elevated.  There
+was nothing to remind him of a porter's lodge, as in most provincial
+salons; or of the greenroom of a theatre, as in many salons of Paris; nor
+yet, as he had feared, of a lecture-room.
+
+There were five or six women--some pretty, all well bred--who, in
+adopting the habit of thinking, had not lost the habit of laughing, nor
+the desire to please.  But they all seemed subject to the same charm; and
+that charm was sovereign.  Madame de Tecle, half hidden on her sofa, and
+seemingly busied with her embroidery, animated all by a glance, softened
+all by a word.  The glance was inspiring; the word always appropriate.
+Her decision on all points they regarded as final--as that of a judge who
+sentences, or of a woman who is beloved.
+
+No verses were read that evening, and Camors was not bored.  In the
+intervals of the music, the conversation touched on the new comedy by
+Augier; the last work of Madame Sand; the latest poem of Tennyson; or the
+news from America.
+
+"My dear Mopsus," M. des Rameures said to the cure, "you were about to
+read us your sermon on superstition last Thursday, when you were
+interrupted by that joker who climbed the tree in order to hear you
+better.  Now is the time to recompense us.  Take this seat and we will
+all listen to you."
+
+The worthy cure took the seat, unfolded his manuscript, and began his
+discourse, which we shall not here report: profiting by the example of
+our friend Sterne, not to mingle the sacred with the profane.
+
+The sermon met with general approval, though some persons, M. des
+Rameures among them, thought it above the comprehension of the humble
+class for whom it was intended.  M. de Tecle, however, backed by
+republican Durocher, insisted that the intelligence of the people was
+underrated; that they were frequently debased by those who pretended to
+speak only up to their level--and the passages in dispute were retained.
+
+How they passed from the sermon on superstition to the approaching
+marriage of the General, I can not say; but it was only natural after
+all, for the whole country, for twenty miles around, was ringing with it.
+This theme excited Camors's attention at once, especially when the sub-
+prefect intimated with much reserve that the General, busied with his new
+surroundings, would probably resign his office as deputy.
+
+"But that would be embarrassing," exclaimed Des Rameures.  "Who the deuce
+would replace him?  I give you warning, Monsieur Prefect, if you intend
+imposing on us some Parisian with a flower in his buttonhole, I shall
+pack him back to his club--him, his flower, and his buttonhole!  You may
+set that down for a sure thing--"
+
+"Dear uncle!"  said Madame de Tecle, indicating Camors with a glance.
+
+"I understand you, Elise," laughingly rejoined M. des Rameures, "but I
+must beg Monsieur de Camors to believe that I do not in any case intend
+to offend him.  I shall also beg him to tolerate the monomania of an old
+man, and some freedom of language with regard to the only subject which
+makes him lose his sang froid."
+
+"And what is that subject, Monsieur?"  said Camors, with his habitual
+captivating grace of manner.
+
+"That subject, Monsieur, is the arrogant supremacy assumed by Paris over
+all the rest of France.  I have not put my foot in the place since 1825,
+in order to testify the abhorrence with which it inspires me.  You are an
+educated, sensible young man, and, I trust, a good Frenchman.  Very well!
+Is it right, I ask, that Paris shall every morning send out to us our
+ideas ready-made, and that all France shall become a mere humble, servile
+faubourg to the capital?  Do me the favor, I pray you, Monsieur, to
+answer that?"
+
+"There is doubtless, my dear sir," replied Camors, "some excess in this
+extreme centralization of France; but all civilized countries must have
+their capitals, and a head is just as necessary to a nation as to an
+individual."
+
+"Taking your own image, Monsieur, I shall turn it against you.  Yes,
+doubtless a head is as necessary to a nation as to an individual; if,
+however, the head becomes monstrous and deformed, the seat of
+intelligence will be turned into that of idiocy, and in place of a man of
+intellect, you have a hydrocephalus.  Pray give heed to what Monsieur the
+Sub-prefect, may say in answer to what I shall ask him.  Now, my dear
+Sub-prefect, be frank.  If tomorrow, the deputation of this district
+should become vacant, can you find within its broad limits, or indeed
+within the district, a man likely to fill all functions, good and bad?"
+
+"Upon my word," answered the official, "if you continue to refuse the
+office, I really know of no one else fit for it."
+
+"I shall persist all my life, Monsieur, for at my age assuredly I shall
+not expose myself to the buffoonery of your Parisian jesters."
+
+"Very well!  In that event you will be obliged to take some stranger--
+perhaps, even one of those Parisian jesters."
+
+"You have heard him, Monsieur de Camors," said M. des Rameures, with
+exultation.  "This district numbers six hundred thousand souls, and yet
+does not contain within it the material for one deputy.  There is no
+other civilized country, I submit, in which we can find a similar
+instance so scandalous.  For the people of France this shame is reserved
+exclusively, and it is your Paris that has brought it upon us.  Paris,
+absorbing all the blood, life, thought, and action of the country, has
+left a mere geographical skeleton in place of a nation!  These are the
+benefits of your centralization, since you have pronounced that word,
+which is quite as barbarous as the thing itself."
+
+"But pardon me, uncle," said Madame de Tecle, quietly plying her needle,
+"I know nothing of these matters, but it seems to me that I have heard
+you say this centralization was the work of the Revolution and of the
+First Consul.  Why, therefore, do you call Monsieur de Camors to account
+for it?  That certainly does not seem to me just."
+
+"Nor does it seem so to me," said Camors, bowing to Madame de Tecle.
+
+"Nor to me either," rejoined M. des Rameures, smiling.
+
+"However, Madame," resumed Camors, "I may to some extent be held
+responsible in this matter, for though, as you justly suggest, I have not
+brought about this centralization, yet I confess I strongly approve the
+course of those who did."
+
+"Bravo!  So much the better, Monsieur.  I like that.  One should have his
+own positive opinions, and defend them."
+
+"Monsieur," said Camors, "I shall make an exception in your honor, for
+when I dine out, and especially when I dine well, I always have the same
+opinion with my host; but I respect you too highly not to dare to differ
+with you.  Well, then, I think the revolutionary Assembly, and
+subsequently the First Consul, were happily inspired in imposing a
+vigorous centralized political administration upon France.  I believe,
+indeed, that it was indispensable at the time, in order to mold and
+harden our social body in its new form, to adjust it in its position, and
+fix it firmly under the new laws--that is, to establish and maintain this
+powerful French unity which has become our national peculiarity, our
+genius and our strength."
+
+"You speak rightly, sir," exclaimed Durocher.
+
+"Parbleu I unquestionably you are right," warmly rejoined M. des
+Rameures.  "Yes, that is quite true.  The excessive centralization of
+which I complain has had its hour of utility, nay, even of necessity,
+I will admit; but, Monsieur, in what human institution do you pretend to
+implant the absolute, the eternal?  Feudalism, also, my dear sir, was a
+benefit and a progress in its day, but that which was a benefit yesterday
+may it not become an evil to-morrow--a danger?  That which is progress
+to-day, may it not one hundred years hence have become mere routine, and
+a downright trammel?  Is not that the history of the world?  And if you
+wish to know, Monsieur, by what sign we may recognize the fact that a
+social or political system has attained its end, I will tell you: it is
+when it is manifest only in its inconveniences and abuses.  Then the
+machine has finished its work, and should be replaced.  Indeed, I declare
+that French centralization has reached its critical term, that fatal
+point at which, after protecting, it oppresses; at which, after
+vivifying, it paralyzes; at which, having saved France, it crushes her."
+
+"Dear uncle, you are carried away by your subject," said Madame de Tecle.
+
+"Yes, Elise, I am carried away, I admit, but I am right.  Everything
+justifies me--the past and the present, I am sure; and so will the
+future, I fear.  Did I say the past?  Be assured, Monsieur de Camors,
+I am not a narrow-minded admirer of the past.  Though a Legitimist from
+personal affections, I am a downright Liberal in principles.  You know
+that, Durocher?  Well, then, in short, formerly between the Alps, the
+Rhine, and the Pyrenees, was a great country which lived, thought, and
+acted, not exclusively through its capital, but for itself.  It had a
+head, assuredly; but it had also a heart, muscles, nerves, and veins with
+blood in them, and yet the head lost nothing by that.  There was then a
+France, Monsieur.  The province had an existence, subordinate doubtless,
+but real, active, and independent.  Each government, each office, each
+parliamentary centre was a living intellectual focus.  The great
+provincial institutions and local liberties exercised the intellect on
+all sides, tempered the character, and developed men.  And now note well,
+Durocher!  If France had been centralized formerly as to-day, your dear
+Revolution never would have occurred--do you understand?  Never!  because
+there would have been no men to make it.  For may I not ask, whence came
+that prodigious concourse of intelligences all fully armed, and with
+heroic hearts, which the great social movement of '78 suddenly brought
+upon the scene?  Please recall to mind the most illustrious men of that
+era--lawyers, orators, soldiers.  How many were from Paris?  All came
+from the provinces, the fruitful womb of France!  But to-day we have
+simply need of a deputy, peaceful times; and yet, out of six hundred
+thousand souls, as we have seen, we can not find one suitable man.  Why
+is this the case, gentlemen?  Because upon the soil of uncentralized
+France men grew, while only functionaries germinate in the soil of
+centralized France."
+
+"God bless you, Monsieur!"  said the Sub-prefect, with a smile.
+
+"Pardon me, my dear Sub-prefect, but you, too, should understand that I
+really plead your cause as well as my own, when I claim for the
+provinces, and for all the functions of provincial life, more
+independence, dignity, and grandeur.  In the state to which these
+functions are reduced at present, the administration and the judiciary
+are equally stripped of power, prestige, and patronage.  You smile,
+Monsieur, but no longer, as formerly, are they the centres of life, of
+emulation, and of light, civic schools and manly gymnasiums; they have
+become merely simple, passive clockwork; and that is the case with the
+rest, Monsieur de Camors.  Our municipal institutions are a mere farce,
+our provincial assemblies only a name, our local liberties naught!
+Consequently, we have not now a man for a deputy.  But why should we
+complain?  Does not Paris undertake to live, to think for us?  Does she
+not deign to cast to us, as of yore the Roman Senate cast to the suburban
+plebeians, our food for the day-bread and vaudevilles--'panem et
+circenses'.  Yes, Monsieur, let us turn from the past to the present--
+to France of to-day!  A nation of forty millions of people who await each
+morning from Paris the signal to know whether it is day or night, or
+whether, indeed, they shall laugh or weep!  A great people, once the
+noblest, the cleverest in the world, repeating the same day, at the same
+hour, in all the salons, and at all the crossways in the empire, the same
+imbecile gabble engendered the evening before in the mire of the
+boulevards.  I tell you?  Monsieur, it is humiliating that all Europe,
+once jealous of us, should now shrug her shoulders in our faces.--
+Besides, it is fatal even for Paris, which, permit me to add, drunk with
+prosperity in its haughty isolation and self-fetishism, not a little
+resembles the Chinese Empire-a focus of warmed-over, corrupt, and
+frivolous civilization!  As for the future, my dear sir, may God preserve
+me from despair, since it concerns my country!  This age has already seen
+great things, great marvels, in fact; for I beg you to remember I am by
+no means an enemy to my time.  I approve the Revolution, liberty,
+equality, the press, railways, and the telegraph; and as I often say to
+Monsieur le Cure, every cause that would live must accommodate itself
+cheerfully to the progress of its epoch, and study how to serve itself
+by it.  Every cause that is in antagonism with its age commits suicide.
+Indeed, Monsieur, I trust this century will see one more great event,
+the end of this Parisian tyranny, and the resuscitation of provincial
+life; for I must repeat, my dear sir, that your centralization, which was
+once an excellent remedy, is a detestable regimen!  It is a horrible
+instrument of oppression and tyranny, ready-made for all hands, suitable
+for every despotism, and under it France stifles and wastes away.  You
+must agree with me yourself, Durocher; in this sense the Revolution
+overshot its mark, and placed in jeopardy even its purposes; for you, who
+love liberty, and do not wish it merely for yourself alone, as some of
+your friends do, but for all the world, surely you can not admire
+centralization, which proscribes liberty as manifestly as night obscures
+the day.  As for my part, gentlemen, there are two things which I love
+equally--liberty and France.  Well, then, as I believe in God, do I
+believe that both must perish in the throes of some convulsive
+catastrophe if all the life of the nation shall continue to be
+concentrated in the brain, and the great reform for which I call is not
+made: if a vast system of local franchise, if provincial institutions,
+largely independent and conformable to the modern spirit, are not soon
+established to yield fresh blood for our exhausted veins, and to
+fertilize our impoverished soil.  Undoubtedly the work will be difficult
+and complicated; it will demand a firm resolute hand, but the hand that
+may accomplish it will have achieved the most patriotic work of the
+century.  Tell that to your sovereign, Monsieur Sub-prefect; say to him
+that if he do that, there is one old French heart that will bless him.
+Tell him, also, that he will encounter much passion, much derision, much
+danger, peradventure; but that he will have a commensurate recompense
+when he shall see France, like Lazarus, delivered from its swathings and
+its shroud, rise again, sound and whole, to salute him!"
+
+These last words the old gentleman had pronounced with fire, emotion, and
+extraordinary dignity; and the silence and respect with which he had been
+listened to were prolonged after he had ceased to speak.  This appeared
+to embarrass him, but taking the arm of Camors he said, with a smile,
+"'Semel insanivimus omnes.'  My dear sir, every one has his madness.  I
+trust that mine has not offended you.  Well, then, prove it to me by
+accompanying me on the piano in this song of the sixteenth century."
+
+Camors complied with his usual good taste; and the song of the sixteenth
+century terminated the evening's entertainment; but the young Count,
+before leaving, found the means of causing Madame de Tecle the most
+profound astonishment.  He asked her, in a low voice, and with peculiar
+emphasis, whether she would be kind enough, at her leisure, to grant him
+the honor of a moment's private conversation.
+
+Madame de Tecle opened still wider those large eyes of hers, blushed
+slightly, and replied that she would be at home the next afternoon at
+four o'clock.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Bad to fear the opinion of people one despises
+Camors refused, hesitated, made objections, and consented
+Confounding progress with discord, liberty with license
+Contempt for men is the beginning of wisdom
+Cried out, with the blunt candor of his age
+Dangers of liberty outweighed its benefits
+Demanded of him imperatively--the time of day
+Do not get angry.  Rarely laugh, and never weep
+Every cause that is in antagonism with its age commits suicide
+Every one is the best judge of his own affairs
+Every road leads to Rome--and one as surely as another
+God--or no principles!
+He is charming, for one always feels in danger near him
+Intemperance of her zeal and the acrimony of her bigotry
+Man, if he will it, need not grow old: the lion must
+Never can make revolutions with gloves on
+Once an excellent remedy, is a detestable regimen
+Pleasures of an independent code of morals
+Police regulations known as religion
+Principles alone, without faith in some higher sanction
+Property of all who are strong enough to stand it
+Semel insanivimus omnes.'  (every one has his madness)
+Slip forth from the common herd, my son, think for yourself
+Suspicion that he is a feeble human creature after all!
+There will be no more belief in Christ than in Jupiter
+Ties that become duties where we only sought pleasures
+Truth is easily found.  I shall read all the newspapers
+Whether in this world one must be a fanatic or nothing
+Whole world of politics and religion rushed to extremes
+With the habit of thinking, had not lost the habit of laughing
+You can not make an omelette without first breaking the eggs
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors, v1
+by Octave Feuillet
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MONSIEUR DE CAMORS
+
+By OCTAVE FEUILLET
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LOVE CONQUERS PHILOSOPHY
+
+To M. de Camors, in principle it was a matter of perfect indifference
+whether France was centralized or decentralized.  But his Parisian
+instinct induced him to prefer the former.  In spite of this preference,
+he would not have scrupled to adopt the opinions of M. des Rameures, had
+not his own fine tact shown him that the proud old gentleman was not to
+be won by submission.
+
+He therefore reserved for him the triumph of his gradual conversion.
+Be that as it might, it was neither of centralization nor of
+decentralization that the young Count proposed to speak to Madame de
+Tecle, when, at the appointed hour, he presented himself before her.
+He found her in the garden, which, like the house, was of an ancient,
+severe, and monastic style.  A terrace planted with limetrees extended on
+one side of the garden.  It was at this spot that Madame de Tecle was
+seated under a group of lime-trees, forming a rustic bower.
+
+She was fond of this place, because it recalled to her that evening when
+her unexpected apparition had suddenly inspired with a celestial joy the
+pale, disfigured face of her betrothed.
+
+She was seated on a low chair beside a small rustic table, covered with
+pieces of wool and silk; her feet rested on a stool, and she worked on a
+piece of tapestry, apparently with great tranquillity.
+
+M. de Camors, an expert in all the niceties and exquisite devices of the
+feminine mind, smiled to himself at this audience in the open air.  He
+thought he fathomed its meaning.  Madame de Tecle desired to deprive this
+interview of the confidential character which closed doors would have
+given it.
+
+It was the simple truth.  This young woman, who was one of the noblest of
+her sex, was not at all simple.  She had not passed ten years of her
+youth, her beauty, and her widowhood without receiving, under forms more
+or less direct, dozens of declarations that had inspired her with
+impressions, which, although just, were not always too flattering to the
+delicacy and discretion of the opposite sex.  Like all women of her age,
+she knew her danger, and, unlike most of them, she did not love it.
+She had invariably turned into the broad road of friendship all those she
+had surprised rambling within the prohibited limits of love.  The request
+of M. de Camors for a private interview had seriously preoccupied her
+since the previous evening.  What could be the object of this mysterious
+interview?  She puzzled her brain to imagine, but could not divine.
+
+It was not probable that M. de Camors, at the beginning of their
+acquaintance, would feel himself entitled to declare a passion.  However
+vividly the famed gallantry of the young Count rose to her memory, she
+thought so noted a ladykiller as he might adopt unusual methods, and
+might think himself entitled to dispense with much ceremony in dealing
+with an humble provincial.
+
+Animated by these ideas, she resolved to receive him in the garden,
+having remarked, during her short experience, that open air and a wide,
+open space were not favorable to bold wooers.
+
+M. de Camors bowed to Madame de Tecle as an Englishman would have bowed
+to his queen; then seating himself, drew his chair nearer to hers,
+mischievously perhaps, and lowering his voice into a confidential tone,
+said: "Madame, will you permit me to confide a secret to you, and to ask
+your counsel?"
+
+She raised her graceful head, fixed upon the Count her soft, bright gaze,
+smiled vaguely, and by a slight movement of the hand intimated to him,
+"You surprise me; but I will listen to you."
+
+"This is my first secret, Madame--I desire to become deputy for this
+district."
+
+At this unexpected declaration, Madame de Tecle looked at him, breathed a
+slight sigh of relief, and gravely awaited what he had to say.
+
+"The General de Campvallon, Madame," continued the young man, "has
+manifested a father's kindness to me.  He intends to resign in my favor,
+and has not concealed from me that the support of your uncle is
+indispensable to my success as a candidate.  I have therefore come here,
+by the General's advice, in the hope of obtaining this support, but the
+ideas and opinions expressed yesterday by your uncle appear to me so
+directly opposed to my pretensions that I feel truly discouraged.  To be
+brief, Madame, in my perplexity I conceived the idea--indiscreet
+doubtless--to appeal to your kindness, and ask your advice--which I am
+determined to follow, whatever it may be."
+
+"But, Monsieur!  you embarrass me greatly," said the young woman, whose
+pretty face, at first clouded, brightened up immediately with a frank
+smile.
+
+"I have no special claims on your kindness--on the contrary perhaps--but
+I am a human being, and you are charitable.  Well, in truth, Madame, this
+matter seriously concerns my fortune, my future, and my whole destiny.
+This opportunity which now presents itself for me to enter public life so
+young is exceptional.  I should regret very much to lose it; would you
+therefore be so kind as to aid me?"
+
+"But how can I?"  replied Madame de Tecle.  "I never interfere in
+politics, and that is precisely what you ask me."
+
+"Nevertheless, Madame, I pray you not to oppose me."
+
+"Why should I oppose you?"
+
+"Ah, Madame!  You have a right more than any other person to be severe.
+My youth was a little dissipated.  My reputation, in some respects, is
+not over-good, I know, and I doubt not you may have heard so, and I can
+not help fearing it has inspired you with some dislike to me."
+
+"Monsieur, we lived a retired life here.  We know nothing of what passes
+in Paris.  If we did, this would not prevent my assisting you, if I knew
+how, for I think that serious and elevated labors could not fail happily
+to change your ordinary habits."
+
+"It is truly a delicious thing," thought the young Count, "to mystify so
+spiritual a person."
+
+"Madame," he continued, with his quiet grace, "I join in your hopes, and
+as you deign to encourage my ambition, I believe I shall succeed in
+obtaining your uncle's support.  You know him well.  What shall I do to
+conciliate him?  What course shall I adopt?--because I can not do without
+his assistance.  Were I to renounce that, I should be compelled to
+renounce my projects."
+
+"It is truly difficult," said Madame de Tecle, with a reflective air--
+"very difficult!"
+
+"Is it not, Madame?"
+
+Camors's voice expressed such confidence and submission that Madame de
+Tecle was quite touched, and even the devil himself would have been
+charmed by it, had he heard it in Gehenna.
+
+"Let me reflect on this a little," she said, and she placed her elbows on
+the table, leaned her head on her hands, her fingers, like a fan, half
+shading her eyes, while sparks of fire from her rings glittered in the
+sunshine, and her ivory nails shone against her smooth brow.  M. de
+Camors continued to regard her with the same submissive and candid air.
+
+"Well, Monsieur," she said at last, smiling, "I think you can do nothing
+better than keep on."
+
+"Pardon me, but how?"
+
+"By persevering in the same system you have already adopted with my
+uncle!  Say nothing to him for the present.  Beg the General also to be
+silent.  Wait quietly until intimacy, time, and your own good qualities
+have sufficiently prepared my uncle for your nomination.  My role is very
+simple.  I cannot, at this moment, aid you, without betraying you.  My
+assistance would only injure you, until a change comes in the aspect of
+affairs.  You must conciliate him."
+
+"You overpower me," said Camors, "in taking you for my confidante in my
+ambitious projects, I have committed a blunder and an impertinence, which
+a slight contempt from you has mildly punished.  But speaking seriously,
+Madame, I thank you with all my heart.  I feared to find in you a
+powerful enemy, and I find in you a strong neutral, almost an ally."
+
+"Oh!  altogether an ally, however secret," responded Madame de Tecle,
+laughing.  "I am glad to be useful to you; as I love General Campvallon
+very much, I am happy to enter into his views.  Come here, Marie?"  These
+last words were addressed to her daughter, who appeared on the steps of
+the terrace, her cheeks scarlet, and her hair dishevelled, holding a card
+in her hand.  She immediately approached her mother, giving M. de Camors
+one of those awkward salutations peculiar to young, growing girls.
+
+"Will you permit me," said Madame de Tecle, "to give to my daughter a few
+orders in English, which we are translating?  You are too warm--do not
+run any more.  Tell Rosa to prepare my bodice with the small buttons.
+While I am dressing, you may say your catechism to me."
+
+"Yes, mother."
+
+"Have you written your exercise?"
+
+"Yes, mother.  How do you say 'joli' in English for a man?"  asked the
+little girl.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"That question is in my exercise, to be said of a man who is 'beau, joli,
+distingue.'"
+
+"Handsome, nice, and charming," replied her mother.
+
+"Very well, mother, this gentleman, our neighbor, is altogether handsome,
+nice, and charming."
+
+"Silly child!"  exclaimed Madame de Tecle, while the little girl rushed
+down the steps.
+
+M. de Camors, who had listened to this dialogue with cool calmness, rose.
+"I thank you again, Madame," he said; "and will you now excuse me?  You
+will allow me, from time to time, to confide in you my political hopes
+and fears?"
+
+"Certainly, Monsieur."
+
+He bowed and retired.  As he was crossing the courtyard, he found himself
+face to face with Mademoiselle Marie.  He gave her a most respectful bow.
+"Another time, Miss Mary, be more careful.  I understand English
+perfectly well!"
+
+Mademoiselle Marie remained in the same attitude, blushed up to the roots
+of her hair, and cast on M. de Camors a startled look of mingled shame
+and anger.
+
+"You are not satisfied, Miss Mary," continued Camors.
+
+"Not at all," said the child, quickly, her strong voice somewhat husky.
+
+M. Camors laughed, bowed again, and departed, leaving Mademoiselle Marie
+in the midst of the court, transfixed with indignation.
+
+A few moments later Marie threw herself into the arms of her mother,
+weeping bitterly, and told her, through her tears, of her cruel mishap.
+
+Madame de Tecle, in using this opportunity of giving her daughter a
+lesson on reserve and on convenance, avoided treating the matter too
+seriously and even seemed to laugh heartily at it, although she had
+little inclination to do so, and the child finished by laughing with her.
+
+Camors, meanwhile, remained at home, congratulating himself on his
+campaign, which seemed to him, not without reason, to have been a
+masterpiece of stratagem.  By a clever mingling of frankness and cunning
+he had quickly enlisted Madame de Tecle in his interest.  From that
+moment the realization of his ambitious dreams seemed assured, for he was
+not ignorant of the incomparable value of woman's assistance, and knew
+all the power of that secret and continued labor, of those small but
+cumulative efforts, and of those subterranean movements which assimilate
+feminine influence with the secret and irresistible forces of nature.
+Another point gained-he had established a secret between that pretty
+woman and himself, and had placed himself on a confidential footing with
+her.  He had gained the right to keep secret their clandestine words and
+private conversation, and such a situation, cleverly managed, might aid
+him to pass very agreeably the period occupied in his political canvass.
+
+Camors on entering the house sat down to write the General, to inform him
+of the opening of his operations, and admonish him to have patience.
+From that day he turned his attention to following up the two persons who
+could control his election.
+
+His policy as regarded M. des Rameures was as simple as it was clever.
+It has already been clearly indicated, and further details would be
+unnecessary.  Profiting by his growing familiarity as neighbor, he went
+to school, as it were, at the model farm of the gentleman-farmer, and
+submitted to him the direction of his own domain.  By this quiet
+compliment, enhanced by his captivating courtesy, he advanced insensibly
+in the good graces of the old man.  But every day, as he grew to know
+M. de Rameures better, and as he felt more the strength of his character,
+he began to fear that on essential points he was quite inflexible.
+
+After some weeks of almost daily intercourse, M. des Rameures graciously
+praised his young neighbor as a charming fellow, an excellent musician,
+an amiable associate; but, regarding him as a possible deputy, he saw
+some things which might disqualify him.  Madame de Tecle feared this, and
+did not hide it from M. de Camors.  The young Count did not preoccupy
+himself so much on this subject as might be supposed, for his second
+ambition had superseded his first; in other words his fancy for Madame de
+Tecle had become more ardent and more pressing than his desire for the
+deputyship.  We are compelled to admit, not to his credit, that he first
+proposed to himself, to ensnare his charming neighbor as a simple
+pastime, as an interesting adventure, and, above all, as a work of art,
+which was extremely difficult and would greatly redound to his honor.
+Although he had met few women of her merit, he judged her correctly.  He
+believed Madame de Tecle was not virtuous simply from force of habit or
+duty.  She had passion.  She was not a prude, but was chaste.  She was
+not a devotee, but was pious.  He discerned in her at the same time a
+spirit elevated, yet not narrow; lofty and dignified sentiments, and
+deeply rooted principles; virtue without rigor, pure and lambent as
+flame.
+
+Nevertheless he did not despair, trusting to his own principles, to the
+fascinations of his manner and his previous successes.  Instinctively,
+he knew that the ordinary forms of gallantry would not answer with her.
+All his art was to surround her with absolute respect, and to leave the
+rest to time and to the growing intimacy of each day.
+
+There was something very touching to Madame de Tecle in the reserved and
+timid manner of this 'mauvais sujet', in her presence--the homage of a
+fallen spirit, as if ashamed of being such, in presence of a spirit of
+light.
+
+Never, either in public or when tete-a-tete, was there a jest, a word, or
+a look which the most sensitive virtue could fear.
+
+This young man, ironical with all the rest of the world, was serious with
+her.  From the moment he turned toward her, his voice, face, and
+conversation became as serious as if he had entered a church.  He had a
+great deal of wit, and he used and abused it beyond measure in
+conversations in the presence of Madame de Tecle, as if he were making a
+display of fireworks in her honor.  But on coming to her this was
+suddenly extinguished, and he became all submission and respect.
+
+Not every woman who receives from a superior man such delicate flattery
+as this necessarily loves him, but she does like him.  In the shadow of
+the perfect security in which M. de Camors had placed her, Madame de
+Tecle could not but be pleased in the company of the most distinguished
+man she had ever met, who had, like herself, a taste for art, music, and
+for high culture.
+
+Thus these innocent relations with a young man whose reputation was
+rather equivocal could not but awaken in the heart of Madame de Tecle a
+sentiment, or rather an illusion, which the most prudish could not
+condemn.
+
+Libertines offer to vulgar women an attraction which surprises, but which
+springs from a reprehensible curiosity.  To a woman of society they offer
+another, more noble yet not less dangerous--the attraction of reforming
+them.  It is rare that virtuous women do not fall into the error of
+believing that it is for virtue's sake alone such men love them.  These,
+in brief, were the secret sympathies whose slight tendrils intertwined,
+blossomed, and flowered little by little in this soul, as tender as it
+was pure.
+
+M. de Camors had vaguely foreseen all this: that which he had not
+foreseen was that he himself would be caught in his own snare, and would
+be sincere in the role which he had so judiciously adopted.  From the
+first, Madame de Tecle had captivated him.  Her very puritanism, united
+with her native grace and worldly elegance, composed a kind of daily
+charm which piqued the imagination of the cold young man.  If it was a
+powerful temptation for the angels to save the tempted, the tempted could
+not harbor with more delight the thought of destroying the angels.  They
+dream, like the reckless Epicureans of the Bible, of mingling, in a new
+intoxication, the earth with heaven.  To these sombre instincts of
+depravity were soon united in the feelings of Camors a sentiment more
+worthy of her.  Seeing her every day with that childlike intimacy which
+the country encourages--enhancing the graceful movements of this
+accomplished person, ever self-possessed and equally prepared for duty or
+for pleasure--as animated as passion, yet as severe as virtue--he
+conceived for her a genuine worship.  It was not respect, for that
+requires the effort of believing in such merits, and he did not wish to
+believe.  He thought Madame de Tecle was born so.  He admired her as he
+would admire a rare plant, a beautiful object, an exquisite work, in
+which nature had combined physical and moral grace with perfect
+proportion and harmony.  His deportment as her slave when near her was
+not long a mere bit of acting.  Our fair readers have doubtless remarked
+an odd fact: that where a reciprocal sentiment of two feeble human beings
+has reached a certain point of maturity, chance never fails to furnish a
+fatal occasion which betrays the secret of the two hearts, and suddenly
+launches the thunderbolt which has been gradually gathering in the
+clouds.  This is the crisis of all love.  This occasion presented itself
+to Madame de Tecle and M. de Camors in the form of an unpoetic incident.
+
+It occurred at the end of October.  Camors had gone out after dinner to
+take a ride in the neighborhood.  Night had already fallen, clear and
+cold; but as the Count could not see Madame de Tecle that evening, he
+began only to think of being near her, and felt that unwillingness to
+work common to lovers--striving, if possible, to kill time, which hung
+heavy on his hands.
+
+He hoped also that violent exercise might calm his spirit, which never
+had been more profoundly agitated.  Still young and unpractised in his
+pitiless system, he was troubled at the thought of a victim so pure as
+Madame de Tecle.  To trample on the life, the repose, and the heart of
+such a woman, as the horse tramples on the grass of the road, with as
+little care or pity, was hard for a novice.
+
+Strange as it may appear, the idea of marrying her had occurred to him.
+Then he said to himself that this weakness was in direct contradiction to
+his principles, and that she would cause him to lose forever his mastery
+over himself, and throw him back into the nothingness of his past life.
+Yet with the corrupt inspirations of his depraved soul he foresaw that
+the moment he touched her hands with the lips of a lover a new sentiment
+would spring up in her soul.  As he abandoned himself to these passionate
+imaginings, the recollection of young Madame Lescande came back suddenly
+to his memory.  He grew pale in the darkness.  At this moment he was
+passing the edge of a little wood belonging to the Comte de Tecle, of
+which a portion had recently been cleared.  It was not chance alone that
+had directed the Count's ride to this point.  Madame de Tecle loved this
+spot, and had frequently taken him there, and on the preceding evening,
+accompanied by her daughter and her father-in-law, had visited it with
+him.
+
+The site was a peculiar one.  Although not far from houses, the wood was
+very wild, as if a thousand miles distant from any inhabited place.
+
+You would have said it was a virgin forest, untouched by the axe of the
+pioneer.  Enormous stumps without bark, trunks of gigantic trees, covered
+the declivity of the hill, and barricaded, here and there, in a
+picturesque manner, the current of the brook which ran into the valley.
+A little farther up the dense wood of tufted trees contributed to diffuse
+that religious light half over the rocks, the brushwood and the fertile
+soil, and on the limpid water, which is at once the charm and the horror
+of old neglected woods.  In this solitude, and on a space of cleared
+ground, rose a sort of rude hut, constructed by a poor devil who was a
+sabot-maker by trade, and who had been allowed to establish himself there
+by the Comte de Tecle, and to use the beech-trees to gain his humble
+living.  This Bohemian interested Madame de Tecle, probably because, like
+M. de Camors, he had a bad reputation.  He lived in his cabin with a
+woman who was still pretty under her rags, and with two little boys with
+golden curls.
+
+He was a stranger in the neighborhood, and the woman was said not to be
+his wife.  He was very taciturn, and his features seemed fine and
+determined under his thick, black beard.
+
+Madame de Tecle amused herself seeing him make his sabots.  She loved the
+children, who, though dirty, were beautiful as angels; and she pitied the
+woman.  She had a secret project to marry her to the man, in case she had
+not yet been married, which seemed probable.
+
+Camors walked his horse slowly over the rocky and winding path on the
+slope of the hillock.  This was the moment when the ghost of Madame
+Lescande had risen before him, and he believed he could almost hear her
+weep.  Suddenly this illusion gave place to a strange reality.  The voice
+of a woman plainly called him by name, in accents of distress--"Monsieur
+de Camors!"
+
+Stopping his horse on the instant, he felt an icy shudder pass through
+his frame.  The same voice rose higher and called him again.  He
+recognized it as the voice of Madame de Tecle.  Looking around him in the
+obscure light with a rapid glance, he saw a light shining through the
+foliage in the direction of the cottage of the sabot-maker.  Guided by
+this, he put spurs to his horse, crossed the cleared ground up the
+hillside, and found himself face to face with Madame de Tecle.  She was
+standing at the threshold of the hut, her head bare, and her beautiful
+hair dishevelled under a long, black lace veil.  She was giving a servant
+some hasty orders.  When she saw Camors approach, she came toward him.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "but I thought I recognized you, and I called you.
+I am so much distressed--so distressed!  The two children of this man are
+dying!  What is to be done?  Come in--come in, I beg of you!"
+
+He leaped to the ground, threw the reins to his servant, and followed
+Madame de Tekle into the interior of the cabin.
+
+The two children with the golden hair were lying side by side on a little
+bed, immovable, rigid, their eyes open and the pupils strangely dilated--
+their faces red, and agitated by slight convulsions.  They seemed to be
+in the agony of death.  The old doctor, Du Rocher, was leaning over them,
+looking at them with a fixed, anxious, and despairing eye.  The mother
+was on her knees, her head clasped in her hands, and weeping bitterly.
+At the foot of the bed stood the father, with his savage mien--his arms
+crossed, and his eyes dry.  He shuddered at intervals, and murmured, in a
+hoarse, hollow voice: "Both of them!  Both of them!"  Then he relapsed
+into his mournful attitude.  M. Durocher, approached Camors quickly.
+"Monsieur," said he, "what can this be?  I believe it to be poisoning,
+but can detect no definite symptoms: otherwise, the parents should know--
+but they know nothing!  A sunstroke, perhaps; but as both were struck at
+the same time--and then at this season--ah! our profession is quite
+useless sometimes."
+
+Camors made rapid inquiries.  They had sought M. Durocher, who was dining
+with Madame de Tecle an hour before.  He had hastened, and found the
+children already speechless, in a state of fearful congestion.  It
+appeared they had fallen into this state when first attacked, and had
+become delirious.
+
+Camors conceived an idea.  He asked to see the clothes the children had
+worn during the day.  The mother gave them to him.  He examined them with
+care, and pointed out to the doctor several red stains on the poor rags.
+The doctor touched his forehead, and turned over with a feverish hand the
+small linen--the rough waistcoat--searched the pockets, and found dozens
+of a small fruit-like cherries, half crushed.  "Belladonna!"  he
+exclaimed.  "That idea struck me several times, but how could I be sure?
+You can not find it within twenty miles of this place, except in this
+cursed wood--of that I am sure."
+
+"Do you think there is yet time?"  asked the young Count, in a low voice.
+"The children seem to me to be very ill."
+
+"Lost, I fear; but everything depends on the time that has passed, the
+quantity they have taken, and the remedies I can procure."
+
+The old man consulted quickly with Madame de Tecle, who found she had not
+in her country pharmacy the necessary remedies, or counter-irritants,
+which the urgency of the case demanded.  The doctor was obliged to
+content himself with the essence of coffee, which the servant was ordered
+to prepare in haste, and to send to the village for the other things
+needed.
+
+"To the village!"  cried Madame de Tecle.  "Good heavens!  it is four
+leagues--it is night, and we shall have to wait probably three or four
+hours!"
+
+Camors heard this: "Doctor, write your prescription," he said: "Trilby is
+at the door, and with him I can do the four leagues in an hour--in one
+hour I promise to return here."
+
+"Oh!  thank you, Monsieur!"  said Madame de Tecle.
+
+He took the prescription which Dr. Durocher had rapidly traced on a leaf
+of his pocketbook, mounted his horse, and departed.
+
+The highroad was fortunately not far distant.  When he reached it he rode
+like the phantom horseman.
+
+It was nine o'clock when Madame de Tecle witnessed his departure--it was
+a few moments after ten when she heard the tramp of his horse at the foot
+of the hill and ran to the door of the hut.  The condition of the two
+children seemed to have grown worse in the interval, but the old doctor
+had great hopes in the remedies which Camors was to bring.  She waited
+with impatience, and received him like the dawn of the last hope.  She
+contented herself with pressing his hand, when, breathless, he descended
+from his horse.  But this adorable creature threw herself on Trilby, who
+was covered with foam and steaming like a furnace.
+
+"Poor Trilby," she said, embracing him in her two arms, "dear Trilby--
+good Trilby!  you are half dead, are you not?  But I love you well.  Go
+quickly, Monsieur de Camors, I will attend to Trilby"--and while the
+young man entered the cabin, she confided Trilby to the charge of her
+servant, with orders to take him to the stable, and a thousand minute
+directions to take good care of him after his noble conduct.
+Dr. Durocher had to obtain the aid of Camors to pass the new medicine
+through the clenched teeth of the unfortunate children.  While both were
+engaged in this work, Madame de Tecle was sitting on a stool with her
+head resting against the cabin wall.  Durocher suddenly raised his eyes
+and fixed them on her.
+
+"My dear Madame," he said, "you are ill.  You have had too much
+excitement, and the odors here are insupportable.  You must go home."
+
+"I really do not feel very well," she murmured.
+
+"You must go at once.  We shall send you the news.  One of your servants
+will take you home."
+
+She raised herself, trembling; but one look from the young wife of the
+sabot-maker arrested her.  To this poor woman, it seemed that Providence
+deserted her with Madame de Tecle.
+
+"No!"  she said with a divine sweetness; "I will not go.  I shall only
+breathe a little fresh air.  I will remain until they are safe, I promise
+you;" and she left the room smiling upon the poor woman.  After a few
+minutes, Durocher said to M. de Camors:
+
+"My dear sir, I thank you--but I really have no further need of your
+services; so you too may go and rest yourself, for you also are growing
+pale."
+
+Camors, exhausted by his long ride, felt suffocated by the atmosphere of
+the hut, and consented to the suggestion of the old man, saying that he
+would not go far.
+
+As he put his foot outside of the cottage, Madame de Tecle, who was
+sitting before the door, quickly rose and threw over his shoulders a
+cloak which they had brought for her.  She then reseated herself without
+speaking.
+
+"But you can not remain here all night," he said.
+
+"I should be too uneasy at home."
+
+"But the night is very cold--shall I make you a fire?"
+
+"If you wish," she said.
+
+"Let us see where we can make this little fire.  In the midst of this
+wood it is impossible--we should have a conflagration to finish the
+picture.  Can you walk?
+
+"Then take my arm, and we shall go and search for a place for our
+encampment."
+
+She leaned lightly on his arm, and took a few steps with him toward the
+forest.
+
+"Do you think they are saved?"  she asked.
+
+"I hope so," he replied.  "The face of Doctor Durocher is more cheerful."
+
+"Oh!  how glad I am!"
+
+Both of them stumbled over a root, and laughed like two children for
+several minutes.
+
+"We shall soon be in the woods," said Madame de Tecle, "and I declare I
+can go no farther: good or bad, I choose this spot."
+
+They were still quite close to the hut, but the branches of the old trees
+which had been spared by the axe spread like a sombre dome over their
+heads.  Near by was a large rock, slightly covered with moss, and a
+number of old trunks of trees, on which Madame de Tecle took her seat.
+
+"Nothing could be better," said Camors, gayly.  "I must collect my
+materials."
+
+A moment after he reappeared, bringing in his arms brushwood, and also a
+travelling-rug which his servant had brought him.
+
+He got on his knees in front of the rock, prepared the fagots, and
+lighted them with a match.  When the flame began to flicker on the rustic
+hearth Madame de Tecle trembled with joy, and held out both hands to the
+blaze.
+
+"Ah!  how nice that is!"  she said; "and then it is so amusing; one would
+say we had been shipwrecked.
+
+"Now, Monsieur, if you would be perfect go and see what Durocher reports."
+
+He ran to the hut.  When he returned he could not avoid stopping half way
+to admire the elegant and simple silhouette of the young woman, defined
+sharply against the blackness of the wood, her fine countenance slightly.
+illuminated by the firelight.  The moment she saw him:
+
+"Well!"  she cried.
+
+"A great deal of hope."
+
+"Oh!  what happiness, Monsieur!"  She pressed his hand.
+
+"Sit down there," she said.
+
+He sat down on a rock contiguous to hers, and replied to her eager
+questions.  He repeated, in detail, his conversation with the doctor, and
+explained at length the properties of belladonna.  She listened at first
+with interest, but little by little, with her head wrapped in her veil
+and resting on the boughs interlaced behind her, she seemed to be
+uncomfortably resting from fatigue.
+
+"You are likely to fall asleep there," he said, laughing.
+
+"Perhaps!" she murmured--smiled, and went to sleep.
+
+Her sleep resembled death, it was so profound, and so calm was the
+beating of her heart, so light her breathing.
+
+Camors knelt down again by the fire, to listen breathlessly and to gaze
+upon her.  From time to time he seemed to meditate, and the solitude was
+disturbed only by the rustling of the leaves.  His eyes followed the
+flickering of the flame, sometimes resting on the white cheek, sometimes
+on the grove, sometimes on the arches of the high trees, as if he wished
+to fix in his memory all the details of this sweet scene.  Then his gaze
+rested again on the young woman, clothed in her beauty, grace, and
+confiding repose.
+
+What heavenly thoughts descended at that moment on this sombre soul--what
+hesitation, what doubt assailed it!  What images of peace, truth, virtue,
+and happiness passed into that brain full of storm, and chased away the
+phantoms of the sophistries he cherished!  He himself knew, but never
+told.
+
+The brisk crackling of the wood awakened her.  She opened her eyes in
+surprise, and as soon as she saw the young man kneeling before her,
+addressed him:
+
+"How are they now, Monsieur?"
+
+He did not know how to tell her that for the last hour he had had but one
+thought, and that was of her.  Durocher appeared suddenly before them.
+
+"They are saved, Madame," said the old man, brusquely; "come quickly,
+embrace them, and return home, or we shall have to treat you to-morrow.
+You are very imprudent to have remained in this damp wood, and it was
+absurd of Monsieur to let you do so."
+
+She took the arm of the old doctor, smiling, and reentered the hut.  The
+two children, now roused from the dangerous torpor, but who seemed still
+terrified by the threatened death, raised their little round heads.  She
+made them a sign to keep quiet, and leaned over their pillow smiling upon
+them, and imprinted two kisses on their golden curls.
+
+"To-morrow, my angels," she said.  But the mother, half laughing, half
+crying, followed Madame de Tecle step by step, speaking to her, and
+kissing her garments.
+
+"Let her alone," cried the old doctor, querulously.  "Go home, Madame.
+Monsieur de Camors, take her home."
+
+She was going out, when the man, who had not before spoken, and who was
+sitting in the corner of his but as if stupefied, rose suddenly, seized
+the arm of Madame de Tecle, who, slightly terrified, turned round, for
+the gesture of the man was so violent as to seem menacing; his eyes, hard
+and dry, were fixed upon her, and he continued to press her arm with a
+contracted hand.
+
+"My friend!"  she said, although rather uncertain.
+
+"Yes, your friend," muttered the man with a hollow voice; "yes, your
+friend."
+
+He could not continue, his mouth worked as if in a convulsion, suppressed
+weeping shook his frame; he then threw himself on his knees, and they saw
+a shower of tears force themselves through the hands clasped over his
+face.
+
+"Take her away, Monsieur," said the old doctor.
+
+Camors gently pushed her out of the but and followed her.  She took his
+arm and descended the rugged path which led to her home.
+
+It was a walk of twenty minutes from the wood.  Half the distance was
+passed without interchanging a word.  Once or twice, when the rays of the
+moon pierced through the clouds, Camors thought he saw her wipe away a
+tear with the end of her glove.  He guided her cautiously in the
+darkness, although the light step of the young woman was little slower in
+the obscurity.  Her springy step pressed noiselessly the fallen leaves--
+avoided without assistance the ruts and marshes, as if she had been
+endowed with a magical clairvoyance.  When they reached a crossroad, and
+Camors seemed uncertain, she indicated the way by a slight pressure of
+the arm.  Both were no doubt embarrassed by the long silence--it was
+Madame de Tecle who first broke it.
+
+"You have been very good this evening, Monsieur," she said in a low and
+slightly agitated voice.
+
+"I love you so much!"  said the young man.
+
+He pronounced these simple words in such a deep impassioned tone that
+Madame de Tecle trembled and stood still in the road.
+
+"Monsieur de Camors!"
+
+"What, Madame?"  he demanded, in a strange tone.
+
+"Heavens!--in fact-nothing!"  said she, "for this is a declaration of
+friendship, I suppose--and your friendship gives me much pleasure."
+
+He let go her arm at once, and in a hoarse and angry voice said--
+"I am not your friend!"
+
+"What are you then, Monsieur?"
+
+Her voice was calm, but she recoiled a few steps, and leaned against one
+of the trees which bordered the road.  The explosion so long pent up
+burst forth, and a flood of words poured from the young man's lips with
+inexpressible impetuosity.
+
+"What I am I know not!  I no longer know whether I am myself--if I am
+dead or alive--if I am good or bad--whether I am dreaming or waking.  Oh,
+Madame, what I wish is that the day may never rise again--that this night
+would never finish--that I should wish to feel always--always--in my
+head, my heart, my entire being--that which I now feel, near you--of you
+--for you!  I should wish to be stricken with some sudden illness,
+without hope, in order to be watched and wept for by you, like those
+children--and to be embalmed in your tears; and to see you bowed down in
+terror before me is horrible to me!  By the name of your God, whom you
+have made me respect, I swear you are sacred to me--the child in the arms
+of its mother is not more so!"
+
+"I have no fear," she murmured.
+
+"Oh, no!--have no fear!"  he repeated in a tone of voice infinitely
+softened and tender.  "It is I who am afraid--it is I who tremble--you
+see it; for since I have spoken, all is finished.  I expect nothing more
+--I hope for nothing--this night has no possible tomorrow.  I know it.
+Your husband I dare not be--your lover I should not wish to be.  I ask
+nothing of you--understand well!  I should like to burn my heart at your
+feet, as on an altar--this is all.  Do you believe me?  Answer!  Are you
+tranquil?  Are you confident?  Will you hear me?  May I tell you what
+image I carry of you in the secret recesses of my heart?  Dear creature
+that you are, you do not--ah, you do not know how great is your worth;
+and I fear to tell you; so much am I afraid of stripping you of your
+charms, or of one of your virtues.  If you had been proud of yourself,
+as you have a right to be, you would be less perfect, and I should love
+you less.  But I wish to tell you how lovable and how charming you are.
+You alone do not know it.  You alone do not see the soft flame of your
+large eyes--the reflection of your heroic soul on your young but serene
+brow.  Your charm is over everything you do--your slightest gesture is
+engraven on my heart.  Into the most ordinary duties of every-day life
+you carry a peculiar grace, like a young priestess who recites her daily
+devotions.  Your hand, your touch, your breath purifies everything--even
+the most humble and the most wicked beings--and myself first of all!
+
+"I am astonished at the words which I dare to pronounce, and the
+sentiments which animate me, to whom you have made clear new truths.
+Yes, all the rhapsodies of the poets, all the loves of the martyrs,
+I comprehend in your presence.  This is truth itself.  I understand those
+who died for their faith by the torture--because I should like to suffer
+for you--because I believe in you--because I respect you--I cherish you--
+I adore you!"
+
+He stopped, shivering, and half prostrating himself before her, seized
+the end of her veil and kissed it.
+
+"Now," he continued, with a kind of grave sadness, "go, Madame, I have
+forgotten too long that you require repose.  Pardon me--proceed.  I shall
+follow you at a distance, until you reach your home, to protect you--but
+fear nothing from me."
+
+Madame de Tecle had listened, without once interrupting him even by a
+sigh.  Words would only excite the young man more.  Probably she
+understood, for the first time in her life, one of those songs of love--
+one of those hymns alive with passion, which every woman wishes to hear
+before she dies.  Should she die because she had heard it?  She remained
+without speaking, as if just awakening from a dream, and said quite
+simply, in a voice as soft and feeble as a sigh, "My God!"  After another
+pause she advanced a few steps on the road.
+
+"Give me your arm as far as my house, Monsieur," she said.
+
+He obeyed her, and they continued their walk toward the house, the lights
+of which they soon saw.  They did not exchange a word--only as they
+reached the gate, Madame de Tecle turned and made him a slight gesture
+with her hand, in sign of adieu.  In return, M. de Camors bowed low, and
+withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE PROLOGUE TO THE TRAGEDY
+
+The Comte de Camors had been sincere.  When true passion surprises the
+human soul, it breaks down all resolves, sweeps away all logic, and
+crushes all calculations.
+
+In this lies its grandeur, and also its danger.  It suddenly seizes on
+you, as the ancient god inspired the priestess on her tripod--speaks
+through your lips, utters words you hardly comprehend, falsifies your
+thoughts, confounds your reason, and betrays your secrets.  When this
+sublime madness possesses you, it elevates you--it transfigures you.
+It can suddenly convert a common man into a poet, a coward into a hero,
+an egotist into a martyr, and Don Juan himself into an angel of purity.
+
+With women--and it is to their honor--this metamorphosis can be durable,
+but it is rarely so with men.  Once transported to this stormy sky, women
+frankly accept it as their proper home, and the vicinity of the thunder
+does not disquiet them.
+
+Passion is their element--they feel at home there.  There are few women
+worthy of the name who are not ready to put in action all the words which
+passion has caused to bubble from their lips.  If they speak of flight,
+they are ready for exile.  If they talk of dying, they are ready for
+death.  Men are far less consistent with their ideas.
+
+It was not until late the next morning that Camors regretted his outbreak
+of sincerity; for, during the remainder of the night, still filled with
+his excitement, agitated and shaken by the passage of the god, sunk into
+a confused and feverish reverie, he was incapable of reflection.  But
+when, on awakening, he surveyed the situation calmly and by the plain
+light of day, and thought over the preceding evening and its events, he
+could not fail to recognize the fact that he had been cruelly duped by
+his own nervous system.  To love Madame de Tecle was perfectly proper,
+and he loved her still--for she was a person to be loved and desired--
+but to elevate that love or any other as the master of his life, instead
+of its plaything, was one of those weaknesses interdicted by his system
+more than any other.  In fact, he felt that he had spoken and acted like
+a school-boy on a holiday.  He had uttered words, made promises, and
+taken engagements on himself which no one demanded of him.  No conduct
+could have been more ridiculous.  Happily, nothing was lost.  He had yet
+time to give his love that subordinate place which this sort of fantasy
+should occupy in the life of man.  He had been imprudent; but this very
+imprudence might finally prove of service to him.  All that remained of
+this scene was a declaration--gracefully made, spontaneous, natural--
+which subjected Madame de Tecle to the double charm of a mystic idolatry
+which pleased her sex, and to a manly ardor which could not displease
+her.
+
+He had, therefore, nothing to regret--although he certainly would have
+preferred, from the point of view of his principles, to have displayed a
+somewhat less childish weakness.
+
+But what course should he now adopt?  Nothing could be more simple.  He
+would go to Madame de Tecle--implore her forgiveness--throw himself again
+at her feet, promising eternal respect, and succeed.  Consequently, about
+ten o'clock, M. de Camors wrote the following note:
+
+     "MADAME
+
+     "I can not leave without bidding you adieu, and once more demanding
+     your forgiveness.
+
+     "Will you permit me?
+
+                                        "CAMORS."
+
+This letter he was about despatching, when he received one containing the
+following words:
+
+     "I shall be happy, Monsieur, if you will call upon me to-day, about
+     four o'clock.
+                                   "ELISE DE TECLE."
+
+Upon which M. de Camors threw his own note in the fire, as entirely
+superfluous.
+
+No matter what interpretation he put upon this note, it was an evident
+sign that love had triumphed and that virtue was defeated; for, after
+what had passed the previous evening between Madame de Tecle and himself,
+there was only one course for a virtuous woman to take; and that was
+never to see him again.  To see him was to pardon him; to pardon him was
+to surrender herself to him, with or without circumlocution.  Camors did
+not allow himself to deplore any further an adventure which had so
+suddenly lost its gravity.  He soliloquized on the weakness of women.
+He thought it bad taste in Madame de Tecle not to have maintained longer
+the high ideal his innocence had created for her.  Anticipating the
+disenchantment which follows possession, he already saw her deprived of
+all her prestige, and ticketed in the museum of his amorous souvenirs.
+
+Nevertheless, when he approached her house, and had the feeling of her
+near presence, he was troubled.  Doubt--and anxiety assailed him.  When
+he saw through the trees the window of her room, his heart throbbed so
+violently that he had to sit down on the root of a tree for a moment.
+
+"I love her like a madman!" he murmured; then leaping up suddenly he
+exclaimed, "But she is only a woman, after all--I shall go on!"
+
+For the first time Madame de Tecle received him in her own apartment.
+This room M. de Camors had never seen.  It was a large and lofty
+apartment, draped and furnished in sombre tints.
+
+It contained gilded mirrors, bronzes, engravings, and old family jewelry
+lying on tables--the whole presenting the appearance of the ornamentation
+of a church.
+
+In this severe and almost religious interior, however rich, reigned a
+vague odor of flowers; and there were also to be seen boxes of lace,
+drawers of perfumed linen, and that dainty atmosphere which ever
+accompanies refined women.
+
+But every one has her personal individuality, and forms her own
+atmosphere which fascinates her lover.  Madame de Tecle, finding herself
+almost lost in this very large room, had so arranged some pieces of
+furniture as to make herself a little private nook near the chimneypiece,
+which her daughter called, "My mother's chapel."  It was there Camors now
+perceived her, by the soft light of a lamp, sitting in an armchair, and,
+contrary to her custom, having no work in her hands.  She appeared calm,
+though two dark circles surrounded her eyes.  She had evidently suffered
+much, and wept much.
+
+On seeing that dear face, worn and haggard with grief, Camors forgot the
+neat phrases he had prepared for his entrance.  He forgot all except that
+he really adored her.
+
+He advanced hastily toward her, seized in his two hands those of the
+young woman and, without speaking, interrogated her eyes with tenderness
+and profound pity.
+
+"It is nothing," she said, withdrawing her hand and bending her pale face
+gently; "I am better; I may even be very happy, if you wish it."
+
+There was in the smile, the look, and the accent of Madame de Tecle
+something indefinable, which froze the blood of Camors.
+
+He felt confusedly that she loved him, and yet was lost to him; that he
+had before him a species of being he did not understand, and that this
+woman, saddened, broken, and lost by love, yet loved something else in
+this world better even than that love.
+
+She made him a slight sign, which he obeyed like a child, and he sat down
+beside her.
+
+"Monsieur," she said to him, in a voice tremulous at first, but which
+grew stronger as she proceeded, "I heard you last night perhaps with a
+little too much patience.  I shall now, in return, ask from you the same
+kindness.  You have told me that you love me, Monsieur; and I avow
+frankly that I entertain a lively affection for you.  Such being the
+case, we must either separate forever, or unite ourselves by the only tie
+worthy of us both.  To part:--that will afflict me much, and I also
+believe it would occasion much grief to you.  To unite ourselves:--for my
+own part, Monsieur, I should be willing to give you my life; but I can
+not do it, I can not wed you without manifest folly.  You are younger
+than I; and as good and generous as I believe you to be, simple reason
+tells me that by so doing I should bring bitter repentance on myself.
+But there is yet another reason.  I do not belong to myself, I belong to
+my daughter, to my family, to my past.  In giving up my name for yours I
+should wound, I should cruelly afflict, all the friends who surround me,
+and, I believe, some who exist no longer.  Well, Monsieur," she
+continued, with a smile of celestial grace and resignation, "I have
+discovered a way by which we yet can avoid breaking off an intimacy so
+sweet to both of us--in fact, to make it closer and more dear.  My
+proposal may surprise you, but have the kindness to think over it,
+and do not say no, at once."
+
+She glanced at him, and was terrified at the pallor which overspread his
+face.  She gently took his hand, and said:
+
+"Have patience!"
+
+"Speak on!"  he muttered, hoarsely.
+
+"Monsieur," she continued, with her smile of angelic charity, "God be
+praised, you are quite young; in our society men situated as you are do
+not marry early, and I think they are right.  Well, then, this is what I
+wish to do, if you will allow me to tell you.  I wish to blend in one
+affection the two strongest sentiments of my heart!  I wish to
+concentrate all my care, all my tenderness, all my joy on forming a wife
+worthy of you--a young soul who will make you happy, a cultivated
+intellect of which you can be proud.  I will promise you, Monsieur, I
+will swear to you, to consecrate to you this sweet duty, and to
+consecrate to it all that is best in myself.  I shall devote to it all my
+time, every instant of my life, as to the holy work of a saint.  I swear
+to you that I shall be very happy if you will only tell me that you will
+consent to this."
+
+His answer was an impatient exclamation of irony and anger: then he
+spoke:
+
+"You will pardon me, Madame," he said, "if so sudden a change in my
+sentiments can not be as prompt as you wish."
+
+She blushed slightly.
+
+"Yes," she said, with a faint smile; "I can understand that the idea of
+my being your mother-in-law may seem strange to you; but in some years,
+even in a very few years' time, I shall be an old woman, and then it will
+seem to you very natural."
+
+To consummate her mournful sacrifice, the poor woman did not shrink from
+covering herself, even in the presence of the man she loved, with the
+mantle of old age.
+
+The soul of Camors was perverted, but not base, and it was suddenly
+touched at this simple heroism.  He rendered it the greatest homage he
+could pay, for his eyes suddenly filled with tears.  She observed it,
+for she watched with an anxious eye the slightest impression she produced
+upon him.  So she continued more cheerfully:
+
+"And see, Monsieur, how this will settle everything.  In this way we can
+continue to see each other without danger, because your little affianced
+wife will be always between us.  Our sentiments will soon be in harmony
+with our new thoughts.  Even your future prospects, which are now also
+mine, will encounter fewer obstacles, because I shall push them more
+openly, without revealing to my uncle what ought to remain a secret
+between us two.  I can let him suspect my hopes, and that will enlist him
+in your service.  Above all, I repeat to you that this will insure my
+happiness.  Will you thus accept my maternal affection?"
+
+M. de Camors, by a powerful effort of will, had recovered his self-
+control.
+
+"Pardon me, Madame," he said, with a faint smile, "but I should wish at
+least to preserve honor.  What do you ask of me?  Do you yourself fully
+comprehend?  Have you reflected well on this?  Can either of us contract,
+without imprudence, an engagement of so delicate a nature for so long a
+time?"
+
+"I demand no engagement of you," she replied, "for I feel that would be
+unreasonable.  I only pledge myself as far as I can, without compromising
+the future fate of my daughter.  I shall educate her for you.  I shall,
+in my secret heart, destine her for you, and it is in this light I shall
+think of you for the future.  Grant me this.  Accept it like an honest
+man, and remain single.  This is probably a folly, but I risk my repose
+upon it.  I will run all the risk, because I shall have all the joy.
+I have already had a thousand thoughts on this subject, which I can not
+yet tell you, but which I shall confess to God this night.  I believe--
+I am convinced that my daughter, when I have done all that I can for her,
+will make an excellent wife for you.  She will benefit you, and be an
+honor to you, and will, I hope, one day thank me with all her heart; for
+I perceive already what she wishes, and what she loves.  You can not
+know, you can not even suspect--but I--I know it.  There is already a
+woman in that child, and a very charming woman--much more charming than
+her mother, Monsieur, I assure you."
+
+Madame de Tecle stopped suddenly, the door opened, and Mademoiselle Marie
+entered the room brusquely, holding in each hand a gigantic doll.
+
+M. Camors rose, bowed gravely to her, and bit his lip to avoid smiling,
+which did not altogether escape Madame de Tecle.
+
+"Marie!"  she cried out, "really you are absurd with your dolls!"
+
+"My dolls!  I adore them!"  replied Mademoiselle Marie.
+
+"You are absurd!  Go away with your dolls," said her mother.
+
+"Not without embracing you," said the child.
+
+She laid her dolls on the carpet, sprang on her mother's neck, and kissed
+her on both cheeks passionately, after which she took up her dolls,
+saying to them:
+
+"Come, my little dears!"  and left the room.
+
+"Good heavens!"  said Madame de Tecle, laughing, "this is an unfortunate
+incident; but I still insist, and I implore you to take my word.  She
+will have sense, courage, and goodness.  Now," she continued in a more
+serious tone, "take time to think over it, and return to give me your
+decision, should it be favorable.  If not, we must bid each other adieu."
+
+"Madame," said Camors, rising and standing before her, "I will promise
+never to address a word to you which a son might not utter to his mother.
+Is it not this which you demand?"
+
+Madame de Tecle fixed upon him for an instant her beautiful eyes, full of
+joy and gratitude, then suddenly covered her face with her two hands.
+
+"I thank you!"  she murmured, "I am very happy!"  She extended her hand,
+wet with her tears, which he took and pressed to his lips, bowed low, and
+left the room.
+
+If there ever was a moment in his fatal career when the young man was
+really worthy of admiration, it was this.  His love for Madame de Tecle,
+however unworthy of her it might be, was nevertheless great.  It was the
+only true passion he had ever felt.  At the moment when he saw this love,
+the triumph of which he thought certain, escape him forever, he was not
+only wounded in his pride but was crushed in his heart.
+
+Yet he took the stroke like a gentleman.  His agony was well borne.  His
+first bitter words, checked at once, alone betrayed what he suffered.
+
+He was as pitiless for his own sorrows as he sought to be for those of
+others.  He indulged in none of the common injustice habitual to
+discarded lovers.
+
+He recognized the decision of Madame de Tecle as true and final, and was
+not tempted for a moment to mistake it for one of those equivocal
+arrangements by which women sometimes deceive themselves, and of which
+men always take advantage.  He realized that the refuge she had sought
+was inviolable.  He neither argued nor protested against her resolve.
+He submitted to it, and nobly kissed the noble hand which smote him.
+As to the miracle of courage, chastity, and faith by which Madame de
+Tecle had transformed and purified her love, he cared not to dwell upon
+it.  This example, which opened to his view a divine soul, naked, so to
+speak, destroyed his theories.  One word which escaped him, while passing
+to his own house, proved the judgment which he passed upon it, from his
+own point of view.  "Very childish," he muttered, "but sublime!"
+
+On returning home Camors found a letter from General Campvallon,
+notifying him that his marriage with Mademoiselle d'Estrelles would take
+place in a few days, and inviting him to be present.  The marriage was to
+be strictly private, with only the family to assist at it.
+
+Camors did not regret this invitation, as it gave him the excuse for some
+diversion in his thoughts, of which he felt the need.  He was greatly
+tempted to go away at once to diminish his sufferings, but conquered this
+weakness.  The next evening he passed at the chateau of M. des Rameures;
+and though his heart was bleeding, he piqued himself on presenting an
+unclouded brow and an inscrutable smile to Madame de Tecle.  He announced
+the brief absence he intended, and explained the reason.
+
+"You will present my best wishes to the General," said M. des Rameures.
+"I hope he may be happy, but I confess I doubt it devilishly."
+
+"I shall bear your good wishes to the General, Monsieur."
+
+"The deuce you will!  'Exceptis excipiendis', I hope," responded the old
+gentleman, laughing.
+
+As for Madame de Tecle, to tell of all the tender attentions and
+exquisite delicacies, that a sweet womanly nature knows so well how to
+apply to heal the wounds it has inflicted--how graciously she glided into
+her maternal relation with Camors--to tell all this would require a pen
+wielded by her own soft hands.
+
+Two days later M. de Camors left Reuilly for Paris.  The morning after
+his arrival, he repaired at an early hour to the General's house, a
+magnificent hotel in the Rue Vanneau.  The marriage contract was to be
+signed that evening, and the civil and religious ceremonies were to take
+place next morning.
+
+Camors found the General in a state of extraordinary agitation, pacing up
+and down the three salons which formed the ground floor of the hotel.
+The moment he perceived the young man entering--" Ah, it is you!" he
+cried, darting a ferocious glance upon him.  "By my faith, your arrival
+is fortunate."
+
+"But, General!"
+
+"Well, what!  Why do you not embrace me?"
+
+"Certainly, General!"
+
+"Very well!  It is for to-morrow, you know!"
+
+"Yes, General."
+
+"Sacrebleu!  You are very cool!  Have you seen her?"
+
+"Not yet, General.  I have just arrived."
+
+"You must go and see her this morning.  You owe her this mark of
+interest; and if you discover anything, you must tell me."
+
+"But what should I discover, General?"
+
+"How do I know?  But you understand women much better than I!  Does she
+love me, or does she not love me?  You understand, I make no pretensions
+of turning her head, but still I do not wish to be an object of repulsion
+to her.  Nothing has given me reason to suppose so, but the girl is so
+reserved, so impenetrable."
+
+"Mademoiselle d'Estrelles is naturally cold," said Camors.
+
+"Yes," responded the General.  "Yes, and in some respects I--but really
+now, should you discover anything, I rely on your communicating it to me.
+And stop!--when you have seen her, have the kindness to return here, for
+a few moments--will you?  You will greatly oblige me!"
+
+"Certainly, General, I shall do so."
+
+"For my part, I love her like a fool."
+
+"That is only right, General!"
+
+"Hum--and what of Des Rameures?"
+
+"I think we shall agree, General!"
+
+"Bravo!  we shall talk more of this later.  Go and see her, my dear
+child!"
+
+Camors proceeded to the Rue St. Dominique, where Madame de la Roche-Jugan
+resided.
+
+"Is my aunt in, Joseph?"  he inquired of the servant whom he found in the
+antechamber, very busy in the preparations which the occasion demanded.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur le Comte, Madame la Comtesse is in and will see you."
+
+"Very well," said Camors; and directed his steps toward his aunt's
+chamber.  But this chamber was no longer hers.  This worthy woman had
+insisted on giving it up to Mademoiselle Charlotte, for whom she
+manifested, since she had become the betrothed of the seven hundred
+thousand francs' income of the General, the most humble deference.
+Mademoiselle d'Estrelles had accepted this change with a disdainful
+indifference.  Camors, who was ignorant of this change, knocked therefore
+most innocently at the door.  Obtaining no answer, he entered without
+hesitation, lifted the curtain which hung in the doorway, and was
+immediately arrested by a strange spectacle.  At the other extremity of
+the room, facing him, was a large mirror, before which stood Mademoiselle
+d'Estrelles.  Her back was turned to him.
+
+She was dressed, or rather draped, in a sort of dressing-gown of white
+cashmere, without sleeves, which left her arms and shoulders bare.  Her
+auburn hair was unbound and floating, and fell in heavy masses almost to
+her feet.  One hand rested lightly on the toilet-table, the other held
+together, over her bust, the folds of her dressing-gown.
+
+She was gazing at herself in the glass, and weeping bitterly.
+
+The tears fell drop by drop on her white, fresh bosom, and glittered
+there like the drops of dew which one sees shining in the morning on the
+shoulders of the marble nymphs in the gardens.
+
+Then Camors noiselessly dropped the portiere and noiselessly retired,
+taking with him, nevertheless, an eternal souvenir of this stolen visit.
+He made inquiries; and finally received the embraces of his aunt, who had
+taken refuge in the chamber of her son, whom she had put in the little
+chamber formerly occupied by Mademoiselle d'Estrelles.  His aunt, after
+the first greetings, introduced her nephew into the salon, where were
+displayed all the pomps of the trousseau.  Cashmeres, laces, velvets,
+silks of the finest quality, covered the chairs.  On the chimneypiece,
+the tables, and the consoles, were strewn the jewel-cases.
+
+While Madame de la Roche-Jugan was exhibiting to Camors these magnificent
+things--of which she failed not to give him the prices--Charlotte,
+who had been notified of the Count's presence, entered the salon.
+
+Her face was not only serene--it was joyous.  "Good morning, cousin!"
+she said gayly, extending her hand to Camors.  "How very kind of you to
+come!  Well, you see how the General spoils me?"
+
+"This is the trousseau of a princess, Mademoiselle!"
+
+"And if you knew, Louis," said Madame de la Roche, "how well all this
+suits her!  Dear child!  you would suppose she had been born to a throne.
+However, you know she is descended from the kings of Spain."
+
+"Dear aunt!"  said Mademoiselle, kissing her on the forehead.
+
+"You know, Louis, that I wish her to call me aunt now?"  said the
+Countess, affecting the plaintive tone, which she thought the highest
+expression of human tenderness.
+
+"Ah, indeed!"  said Camors.
+
+"Let us see, little one!  Only try on your coronet before your cousin."
+
+"I should like to see it on your brow," said Camors.
+
+"Your slightest wishes are commands," replied Charlotte, in a voice
+harmonious and grave, but not untouched with irony.
+
+In the midst of the jewelry which encumbered the salon was a full
+marquise's coronet set in precious stones and pearls.  The young girl
+adjusted it on her head before the glass, and then stood near Camors with
+majestic composure.
+
+"Look!"  she said; and he gazed at her bewildered, for she looked
+wonderfully beautiful and proud under her coronet.
+
+Suddenly she darted a glance full into the eyes of the young man, and
+lowering her voice to a tone of inexpressible bitterness, said:
+
+"At least I sell myself dearly, do I not?"  Then turning her back to him
+she laughed, and took off her coronet.
+
+After some further conversation Camors left, saying to himself that this
+adorable person promised to become very dangerous; but not admitting that
+he might profit by it.
+
+In conformity with his promise he returned immediately to the General,
+who continued to pace the three rooms, and cried out as he saw him:
+
+"Eh, well?"
+
+"Very well indeed, General, perfect--everything goes well."
+
+"You have seen her?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"And she said to you--"
+
+"Not much; but she seemed enchanted."
+
+"Seriously, you did not remark anything strange?"
+
+"I remarked she was very lovely!"
+
+"Parbleu! and you think she loves me a little?"
+
+"Assuredly, after her way--as much as she can love, for she has naturally
+a very cold disposition."
+
+"Ah!  as to that I console myself.  All that I demand is not to be
+disagreeable to her.  Is it not so?  Very well, you give me great
+pleasure.  Now, go where you please, my dear boy, until this evening."
+
+"Adieu until this evening, General!"
+
+The signing of the contract was marked by no special incident; only when
+the notary, with a low, modest voice read the clause by which the General
+made Mademoiselle d'Estrelles heiress to all his fortune, Camors was
+amused to remark the superb indifference of Mademoiselle Charlotte, the
+smiling exasperation of Mesdames Bacquiere and Van-Cuyp, and the amorous
+regard which Madame de la Roche-Jugan threw at the same time on
+Charlotte, her son, and the notary.  Then the eye of the Countess rested
+with a lively interest on the General, and seemed to say that it detected
+with pleasure in him an unhealthy appearance.
+
+The next morning, on leaving the Church of St. Thomas daikon, the young
+Marquise only exchanged her wedding-gown for a travelling-costume, and
+departed with her husband for Campvallon, bathed in the tears of Madame
+de la Roche-Jugan, whose lacrimal glands were remarkably tender.
+
+Eight days later M. de Camors returned to Reuilly.  Paris had revived
+him, his nerves were strong again.
+
+As a practical man he took a more healthy view of his adventure with
+Madame de Tecle, and began to congratulate himself on its denouement.
+Had things taken a different turn, his future destiny would have been
+compromised and deranged for him.  His political future especially would
+have been lost, or indefinitely postponed, for his liaison with Madame de
+Tecle would have been discovered some day, and would have forever
+alienated the friendly feelings of M. des Rameures.
+
+On this point he did not deceive himself.  Madame de Tecle, in the first
+conversation she had with him, confided to him that her uncle seemed much
+pleased when she laughingly let him see her idea of marrying her daughter
+some day to M. de Camors.
+
+Camors seized this occasion to remind Madame de Tecle, that while
+respecting her projects for the future, which she did him the honor to
+form, he had not pledged himself to their realization; and that both
+reason and honor compelled him in this matter to preserve his absolute
+independence.
+
+She assented to this with her habitual sweetness.  From this moment,
+without ceasing to exhibit toward him every mark of affectionate
+preference, she never allowed herself the slightest allusion to the dear
+dream she cherished.  Only her tenderness for her daughter seemed to
+increase, and she devoted herself to the care of her education with
+redoubled fervor.  All this would have touched the heart of M. de Camors,
+if the heart of M. de Camors had not lost, in its last effort at virtue,
+the last trace of humanity.
+
+His honor set at rest by his frank avowals to Madame de Tecle, he did not
+hesitate to profit by the advantages of the situation.  He allowed her to
+serve him as much as she desired, and she desired it passionately.
+Little by little she had persuaded her uncle that M. de Camors was
+destined by his character and talents for a great future, and that he
+would, one day, be an excellent match for Marie; that he was becoming
+daily more attached to agriculture, which turned toward decentralization,
+and that he should be attached by firmer bonds to a province which he
+would honor.  While this was going on General Campvallon brought the
+Marquise to present her to Madame de Tecle; and in a confidential
+interview with M. des Rameures unmasked his batteries.  He was going to
+Italy to remain some time, but desired first to tender his resignation,
+and to recommend Camors to his faithful electors.
+
+M. des Rameures, gained over beforehand, promised his aid; and that aid
+was equivalent to success.  Camors had only to make some personal visits
+to the more influential electors; but his appearance was as seductive as
+it was striking, and he was one of those fortunate men who can win a
+heart or a vote by a smile.  Finally, to comply with the requisitions,
+he established himself for several weeks in the chief town of the
+department.  He made his court to the wife of the prefect, sufficiently
+to flatter the functionary without disquieting the husband.  The prefect
+informed the minister that the claims of the Comte de Camors were pressed
+upon the department by an irresistible influence; that the politics of
+the young Count appeared undecided and a little suspicious, but that the
+administration, finding it useless to oppose, thought it more politic to
+sustain him.
+
+The minister, not less politic than the prefect, was of the same opinion.
+
+In consequence of this combination of circumstances, M. de Camors, toward
+the end of his twenty-eighth year, was elected, at intervals of a few
+days, member of the Council-General, and deputy to the Corps Legislatif.
+
+"You have desired it, my dear Elise," said M. des Rameures, on learning
+this double result "you have desired it, and I have supported this young
+Parisian with all my influence.  But I must say, he does not possess my
+confidence.  May we never regret our triumph.  May we never have to say
+with the poet: 'Vita Dais oxidated Malians.'"--[The evil gods have heard
+our vows.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+NEW MAN OF THE NEW EMPIRE
+
+It was now five years since the electors of Reuilly had sent the Comte de
+Camors to the Corps Legislatif, and they had seen no cause to regret
+their choice.  He understood marvellously well their little local
+interests, and neglected no occasion of forwarding them.  Furthermore,
+if any of his constituents, passing through Paris, presented themselves
+at his small hotel on the Rue de l'Imperatrice--it had been built by an
+architect named Lescande, as a compliment from the deputy to his old
+friend--they were received with a winning affability that sent them back
+to the province with softened hearts.  M. de Camors would condescend to
+inquire whether their wives or their daughters had borne them company;
+he would place at their disposal tickets for the theatres and passes into
+the Legislative Chamber; and would show them his pictures and his
+stables.  He also trotted out his horses in the court under their eyes.
+They found him much improved in personal appearance, and even reported
+affectionately that his face was fuller and had lost the melancholy cast
+it used to wear.  His manner, once reserved, was now warmer, without any
+loss of dignity; his expression, once morose, was now marked by a
+serenity at once pleasing and grave.  His politeness was almost a royal
+grace; for he showed to women--young or old, rich or poor, virtuous or
+otherwise--the famous suavity of Louis the Fourteenth.
+
+To his equals, as to his inferiors, his urbanity was perfection; for he
+cultivated in the depths of his soul--for women, for his inferiors, for
+his equals, and for his constituents--the same contempt.
+
+He loved, esteemed, and respected only himself; but that self he loved,
+esteemed, and respected as a god!  In fact, he had now, realized as
+completely as possible, in his own person, that almost superhuman ideal
+he had conceived in the most critical hour of his life.
+
+When he surveyed himself from head to foot in the mental mirror before
+him, he was content!  He was truly that which he wished to be.  The
+programme of his life, as he had laid it down, was faithfully carried
+out.
+
+By a powerful effort of his mighty will, he succeeded in himself
+adopting, rather than disdaining in others, all those animal instincts
+that govern the vulgar.  These he believed fetters which bound the
+feeble, but which the strong could use.  He applied himself ceaselessly
+to the development and perfection of his rare physical and intellectual
+gifts, only that he might, during the short passage from the cradle to
+the tomb, extract from them the greatest amount of pleasure.  Fully
+convinced that a thorough knowledge of the world, delicacy of taste and
+elegance, refinement and the point of honor constituted a sort of moral
+whole which formed the true gentleman, he strove to adorn his person with
+the graver as well as the lighter graces.  He was like a conscientious
+artist, who would leave no smallest detail incomplete.  The result of his
+labor was so satisfactory, that M. de Camors, at the moment we rejoin
+him, was not perhaps one of the best men in the world, but he was beyond
+doubt one of the happiest and most amiable.  Like all men who have
+determined to cultivate ability rather than scrupulousness, he saw all
+things developing to his satisfaction.  Confident of his future, he
+discounted it boldly, and lived as if very opulent.  His rapid elevation
+was explained by his unfailing audacity, by his cool judgment and neat
+finesse, by his great connection and by his moral independence.  He had a
+hard theory, which he continually expounded with all imaginable grace:
+"Humanity," he would say, "is composed of speculators!"
+
+Thoroughly imbued with this axiom, he had taken his degree in the grand
+lodge of financiers.  There he at once made himself an authority by his
+manner and address; and he knew well how to use his name, his political
+influence, and his reputation for integrity.  Employing all these, yet
+never compromising one of them, he influenced men by their virtues, or
+their vices, with equal indifference.  He was incapable of meanness; he
+never wilfully entrapped a friend, or even an enemy, into a disastrous
+speculation; only, if the venture proved unsuccessful, he happened to get
+out and leave the others in it.  But in financial speculations, as in
+battles, there must be what is called "food for powder;" and if one be
+too solicitous about this worthless pabulum, nothing great can be
+accomplished.  So Camors passed as one of the most scrupulous of this
+goodly company; and his word was as potential in the region of "the
+rings," as it was in the more elevated sphere of the clubs and of the
+turf.
+
+Nor was he less esteemed in the Corps Legislatif, where he assumed the
+curious role of a working member until committees fought for him.  It
+surprised his colleagues to see this elegant young man, with such fine
+abilities, so modest and so laborious--to see him ready on the dryest
+subjects and with the most tedious reports.  Ponderous laws of local
+interest neither frightened nor mystified him.  He seldom spoke in the
+public debates, except as a reporter; but in the committee he spoke
+often, and there his manner was noted for its grave precision, tinged
+with irony.  No one doubted that he was one of the statesmen of the
+future; but it could be seen he was biding his time.
+
+The exact shade of his politics was entirely unknown.  He sat in the
+"centre left;" polite to every one, but reserved with all.  Persuaded,
+like his father, that the rising generation was preparing, after a time,
+to pass from theories to revolution--and calculating with pleasure that
+the development of this periodical catastrophe would probably coincide
+with his fortieth year, and open to his blase maturity a source of new
+emotions--he determined to wait and mold his political opinions according
+to circumstances.
+
+His life, nevertheless, had sufficient of the agreeable to permit him to
+wait the hour of ambition.  Men respected, feared, and envied him.  Women
+adored him.
+
+His presence, of which he was not prodigal, adorned an entertainment: his
+intrigues could not be gossiped about, being at the same time choice,
+numerous, and most discreetly conducted.
+
+Passions purely animal never endure long, and his were most ephemeral;
+but he thought it due to himself to pay the last honors to his victims,
+and to inter them delicately under the flowers of his friendship.  He had
+in this way made many friends among the Parisian women--a few only of
+whom detested him.  As for the husbands--they were universally fond of
+him.
+
+To these elegant pleasures he sometimes added a furious debauch, when his
+imagination was for the moment maddened by champagne.  But low company
+disgusted him, and he shunned it; he was not a man for frequent orgies,
+and economized his health, his energies, and his strength.  His tastes
+were as thoroughly elevated as could be those of a being who strove to
+repress his soul.  Refined intrigues, luxury in music, paintings, books,
+and horses--these constituted all the joy of his soul, of his sense, and
+of his pride.  He hovered over the flowers of Parisian elegance; as a bee
+in the bosom of a rose, he drank in its essence and revelled in its
+beauty.
+
+It is easy to understand that M. de Camors, relishing this prosperity,
+attached himself more and more to the moral and religious creed that
+assured it to him; that he became each day more and more confirmed in the
+belief that the testament of his father and his own reflection had
+revealed to him the true evangel of men superior to their species.  He
+was less and less tempted to violate the rules of the game of life; but
+among all the useless cards, to hold which might disturb his system, the
+first he discarded was the thought of marriage.  He pitied himself too
+tenderly at the idea of losing the liberty of which he made such
+agreeable use; at the idea of taking on himself gratuitously the
+restraints, the tedium, the ridicule, and even the danger of a household.
+He shuddered at the bare thought of a community of goods and interest;
+and of possible paternity.
+
+With such views he was therefore but little disposed to encourage the
+natural hopes in which Madame de Tecle had entombed her love.  He
+determined so to conduct himself toward her as to leave no ground for the
+growth of her illusion.  He ceased to visit Reuilly, remaining there but
+two or three weeks in each year, as such time as the session of the
+Council-General summoned him to the province.
+
+It is true that during these rare visits Camors piqued himself on
+rendering Madame de Tecle and M. des Rameures all the duties of
+respectful gratitude.  Yet avoiding all allusion to the past, guarding
+himself scrupulously from confidential converse, and observing a frigid
+politeness to Mademoiselle Marie, there remained doubt in his mind that,
+the fickleness of the fair sex aiding him, the young mother of the girl
+would renounce her chimerical project.  His error was great: and it may
+be here remarked that a hard and scornful scepticism may in this world
+engender as many false judgments and erroneous calculations as candor or
+even inexperience can.  He believed too much in what had been written of
+female fickleness; in deceived lovers, who truly deserved to be such;
+and in what disappointed men had judged of them.
+
+The truth is, women are generally remarkable for the tenacity of their
+ideas and for fidelity to their sentiments.  Inconstancy of heart is the
+special attribute of man; but he deems it his privilege as well, and when
+woman disputes the palm with him on this ground, he cries aloud as if the
+victim of a robber.
+
+Rest assured this theory is no paradox; as proven by the prodigies of
+patient devotion--tenacious, inviolable--every day displayed by women of
+the lower classes, whose natures, if gross, retain their primitive
+sincerity.  Even with women of the world, depraved though they be by the
+temptations that assail them, nature asserts herself; and it is no rarity
+to see them devote an entire life to one idea, one thought, or one
+affection!  Their lives do not know the thousand distractions which at
+once disturb and console men; and any idea that takes hold upon them
+easily becomes fixed.  They dwell upon it in the crowd and in solitude;
+when they read and while they sew; in their dreams and in their prayers.
+In it they live--for it they die.
+
+It was thus that Madame de Tecle had dwelt year after year on the project
+of this alliance with unalterable fervor, and had blended the two pure
+affections that shared her heart in this union of her daughter with
+Camors, and in thus securing the happiness of both.  Ever since she had
+conceived this desire--which could only have had its birth in a soul as
+pure as it was tender--the education of her child had become the sweet
+romance of her life.  She dreamed of it always, and of nothing else.
+
+Without knowing or even suspecting the evil traits lurking in the
+character of Camors, she still understood that, like the great majority
+of the young men of his day, the young Count was not overburdened with
+principle.  But she held that one of the privileges of woman, in our
+social system, was the elevation of their husbands by connection with a
+pure soul, by family affections, and by the sweet religion of the heart.
+Seeking, therefore, by making her daughter an amiable and lovable woman,
+to prepare her for the high mission for which she was destined, she
+omitted nothing which could improve her.  What success rewarded her care
+the sequel of this narrative will show.  It will suffice, for the
+present, to inform the reader that Mademoiselle de Tecle was a young girl
+of pleasing countenance, whose short neck was placed on shoulders a
+little too high.  She was not beautiful, but extremely pretty, well
+educated, and much more vivacious than her mother.
+
+Mademoiselle Marie was so quick-witted that her mother often suspected
+she knew the secret which concerned herself.  Sometimes she talked too
+much of M. de Camors; sometimes she talked too little, and assumed a
+mysterious air when others spoke of him.
+
+Madame de Tecle was a little disturbed by these eccentricities.  The
+conduct of M. de Camors, and his more than reserved bearing, annoyed her
+occasionally; but when we love any one we are likely to interpret
+favorably all that he does, or all that he omits to do.  Madame de Tecle
+readily attributed the equivocal conduct of the Count to the inspiration
+of a chivalric loyalty.  As she believed she knew him thoroughly, she
+thought he wished to avoid committing himself, or awakening public
+observation, before he had made up his mind.
+
+He acted thus to avoid disturbing the repose of both mother and daughter.
+Perhaps also the large fortune which seemed destined for Mademoiselle de
+Tecle might add to his scruples by rousing his pride.
+
+His not marrying was in itself a good augury, and his little fiancee was
+reaching a marriageable age.  She therefore did not despair that some day
+M. de Camors would throw himself at her feet, and say, "Give her to met!"
+
+If God did not intend that this delicious page should ever be written in
+the book of her destiny, and she was forced to marry her daughter to
+another, the poor woman consoled herself with the thought that all the
+cares she lavished upon her would not be lost, and that her dear child
+would thus be rendered better and happier.
+
+The long months which intervened between the annual apparition of Camors
+at Reuilly, filled up by Madame de Tecle with a single idea and by the
+sweet monotony of a regular life, passed more rapidly than the Count
+could have imagined.  His own life, so active and so occupied, placed
+ages and abysses between each of his periodical voyages.  But Madame de
+Tecle, after five years, was always only a day removed from the cherished
+and fatal night on which her dream had begun.  Since that period there
+had been no break in her thoughts, no void in her heart, no wrinkle on
+her forehead.  Her dream continued young, like herself.  But in spite of
+the peaceful and rapid succession of her days, it was not without anxiety
+that she saw the approach of the season which always heralded the return
+of Camors.
+
+As her daughter matured, she preoccupied herself with the impression she
+would make on the mind of the Count, and felt more sensibly the solemnity
+of the matter.
+
+Mademoiselle Marie, as we have already stated, was a cunning little puss,
+and had not failed to perceive that her tender mother chose habitually
+the season of the convocation of the Councils-General to try a new style
+of hair-dressing for her.  The same year on which we have resumed our
+recital there passed, on one occasion, a little scene which rather
+annoyed Madame de Tecle.  She was trying a new coiffure on Mademoiselle
+Marie, whose hair was very pretty and very black; some stray and
+rebellious portions had frustrated her mother's efforts.
+
+There was one lock in particular, which in spite of all combing and
+brushing would break away from the rest, and fall in careless curls.
+Madame de Tecle finally, by the aid of some ribbons, fastened down the
+rebellious curl:
+
+"Now I think it will do," she said sighing, and stepping back to admire
+the effect of her work.
+
+"Don't believe it," said Marie, who was laughing and mocking.  "I do not
+think so.  I see exactly what will happen: the bell rings--I run out--
+my net gives way--Monsieur de Camors walks in--my mother is annoyed--
+tableau!"
+
+"I should like to know what Monsieur de Camors has to do with it?"  said
+Madame de Tecle.
+
+Her daughter threw her arms around her neck--"Nothing!"  she said.
+
+Another time Madame de Tecle detected her speaking of M. de Camors in a
+tone of bitter irony.  He was "the great man"--"the mysterious
+personage"--"the star of the neighborhood"--"the phoenix of guests in
+their woods"--or simply "the Prince!"
+
+Such symptoms were of so serious a nature as not to escape Madame de
+Tecle.
+
+In presence of "the Prince," it is true, the young girl lost her gayety;
+but this was another cross.  Her mother found her cold, awkward, and
+silent--brief, and slightly caustic in her replies.  She feared M. de
+Camors would misjudge her from such appearances.
+
+But Camors formed no judgment, good or bad; Mademoiselle de Tecle was for
+him only an insignificant little girl, whom he never thought of for a
+moment in the year.
+
+There was, however, at this time in society a person who did interest him
+very much, and the more because against his will.  This was the Marquise
+de Campvallon, nee de Luc d'Estrelles.
+
+The General, after making the tour of Europe with his young wife, had
+taken possession of his hotel in the Rue Vanneau, where he lived in great
+splendor.  They resided at Paris during the winter and spring, but in
+July returned to their chateau at Campvallon, where they entertained in
+great state until the autumn.  The General invited Madame de Tecle and
+her daughter, every year, to pass some weeks at Campvallon, rightly
+judging that he could not give his young wife better companions.  Madame
+de Tecle accepted these invitations cheerfully, because it gave her an
+opportunity of seeing the elite of the Parisian world, from whom the
+whims of her uncle had always isolated her.  For her own part, she did
+not much enjoy it; but her daughter, by moving in the midst of such
+fashion and elegance could thus efface some provincialisms of toilet or
+of language; perfect her taste in the delicate and fleeting changes of
+the prevailing modes, and acquire some additional graces.  The young
+Marquise, who reigned and scintillated like a bright star in these high
+regions of social life, lent herself to the designs of her neighbor.
+She seemed to take a kind of maternal interest in Mademoiselle de Tecle,
+and frequently added her advice to her example.  She assisted at her
+toilet and gave the final touches with her own dainty hands; and the
+young girl, in return, loved, admired, and confided in her.
+
+Camors also enjoyed the hospitalities of the General once every season,
+but was not his guest as often as he wished.  He seldom remained at
+Campvallon longer than a week.  Since the return of the Marquise to
+France he had resumed the relations of a kinsman and friend with her
+husband and herself; but, while trying to adopt the most natural manner,
+he treated them both with a certain reserve, which astonished the
+General.  It will not surprise the reader, who recollects the secret and
+powerful reasons which justified this circumspection.
+
+For Camors, in renouncing the greater part of the restraints which
+control and bind men in their relations with one another, had religiously
+intended to preserve one--the sentiment of honor.  Many times, in the
+course of this life, he had felt himself embarrassed to limit and fix
+with certainty the boundaries of the only moral law he wished to respect.
+
+It is easy to know exactly what is in the Bible; it is not easy to know
+exactly what the code of honor commands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+CIRCE
+
+But there exists, nevertheless, in this code one article, as to which M.
+de Camors could not deceive himself, and it was that which forbade his
+attempting to assail the honor of the General under penalty of being in
+his own eyes, as a gentleman, a felon and foresworn.  He had accepted
+from this old man confidence, affection, services, benefits--everything
+which could bind one man inviolably to another man--if there be beneath
+the heavens anything called honor.  He felt this profoundly.
+
+His conduct toward Madame de Campvallon had been irreproachable; and all
+the more so, because the only woman he was interdicted from loving was
+the only woman in Paris, or in the universe, who naturally pleased him
+most.  He entertained for her, at once, the interest which attaches to
+forbidden fruit, to the attraction of strange beauty, and to the mystery
+of an impenetrable sphinx.  She was, at this time, more goddess-like than
+ever.  The immense fortune of her husband, and the adulation which it
+brought her, had placed her on a golden car.  On this she seated herself
+with a gracious and native majesty, as if in her proper place.
+
+The luxury of her toilet, of her jewels, of her house and of her
+equipages, was of regal magnificence.  She blended the taste of an artist
+with that of a patrician.  Her person appeared really to be made divine
+by the rays of this splendor.  Large, blonde, graceful, the eyes blue and
+unfathomable, the forehead grave, the mouth pure and proud it was
+impossible to see her enter a salon with her light, gliding step, or to
+see her reclining in her carriage, her hands folded serenely, without
+dreaming of the young immortals whose love brought death.
+
+She had even those traits of physiognomy, stern and wild, which the
+antique sculptors doubtless had surprised in supernatural visitations,
+and which they have stamped on the eyes and the lips of their marble
+gods.  Her arms and shoulders, perfect in form, seemed models, in the
+midst of the rosy and virgin snow which covered the neighboring
+mountains.  She was truly superb and bewitching.  The Parisian world
+respected as much as it admired her, for she played her difficult part of
+young bride to an old man so perfectly as to avoid scandal.  Without any
+pretence of extraordinary devotion, she knew how to join to her worldly
+pomps the exercise of charity, and all the other practices of an elegant
+piety.  Madame de la Roche-Jugan, who watched her closely, as one
+watching a prey, testified, herself, in her favor; and judged her more
+and more worthy of her son.  And Camors, who observed her, in spite of
+himself, with an eager curiosity, was finally induced to believe, as did
+his aunt and all the world, that she conscientiously performed her
+difficult duties, and that she found in the eclat of her life and the
+gratification of her pride a sufficient compensation for the sacrifice of
+her youth, her heart, and her beauty; but certain souvenirs of the past,
+joined to certain peculiarities, which he fancied he remarked in the
+Marquise, induced him to distrust.
+
+There were times, when recalling all that he had once witnessed--the
+abysses and the flame at the bottom of that heart--he was tempted to
+suspect the existence of many storms under all this calm exterior, and
+perhaps some wickedness.  It is true she never was with him precisely as
+she was before the world.  The character of their relations was marked by
+a peculiar tone.  It was precisely that tone of covert irony adopted by
+two persons who desired neither to remember nor to forget.  This tone,
+softened in the language of Camors by his worldly tact and his respect,
+was much more pointed, and had much more of bitterness on the side of the
+young woman.
+
+He even fancied, at times, that he discovered a shade of coquetry under
+this treatment; and this provocation, vague as it was, coming from this
+beautiful, cold, and inscrutable creature, seemed to him a game fearfully
+mysterious, that at once attracted and disturbed him.
+
+This was the state of things when the Count came, according to custom,
+to pass the first days of September at the chateau of Campvallon, and met
+there Madame de Tecle and her daughter.  The visit was a painful one,
+this year, for Madame de Tecle.  Her confidence deserted her, and serious
+concern took its place.  She had, it is true, fixed in her mind, as the
+last point of her hopes, the moment when her daughter should have reached
+twenty years of age; and Marie was only eighteen.
+
+But she already had had several offers, and several times public rumor
+had already declared her to be betrothed.
+
+Now, Camors could not have been ignorant of the rumors circulating in the
+neighborhood, and yet he did not speak.  His countenance did not change.
+He was coldly affectionate to Madame de Tecle, but toward Marie, in spite
+of her beautiful blue eyes, like her mother's, and her curly hair,
+he preserved a frozen indifference.  For Camors had other anxieties,
+of which Madame de Tecle knew nothing.  The manner of Madame Campvallon
+toward him had assumed a more marked character of aggressive raillery.
+A defensive attitude is never agreeable to a man, and Camors felt it more
+disagreeable than most men--being so little accustomed to it.
+
+He resolved promptly to shorten his visit at Campvallon.
+
+On the eve of his departure, about five o'clock in the afternoon, he was
+standing at his window, looking beyond the trees at the great black
+clouds sailing over the valley, when he heard the sound of a voice that
+had power to move him deeply--"Monsieur de Camors!"  He saw the Marquise
+standing under his window.
+
+"Will you walk with me?"  she added.
+
+He bowed and descended immediately.  At the moment he reached her:
+
+"It is suffocating," she said.  "I wish to walk round the park and will
+take you with me."
+
+He muttered a few polite phrases, and they began walking, side by side,
+through the alleys of the park.
+
+She moved at a rapid pace, with her majestic motion, her body swaying,
+her head erect.  One would have looked for a page behind her, but she had
+none, and her long blue robe--she rarely wore short skirts--trailed on
+the sand and over the dry leaves with the soft rustle of silk.
+
+"I have disturbed you, probably?"  she said, after a moment's pause.
+"What were you dreaming of up there?"
+
+"Nothing--only watching the coming storm."
+
+"Are you becoming poetical, cousin?"
+
+"There is no necessity for becoming, for I already am infinitely so!"
+
+"I do not think so.  Shall you leave to-morrow?"
+
+"I shall."
+
+"Why so soon?"
+
+"I have business elsewhere."
+
+"Very well.  But Vau--Vautrot--is he not there?"
+
+Vautrot was the secretary of M. de Camors.
+
+"Vautrot can not do everything," he replied.
+
+"By the way, I do not like your Vautrot."
+
+"Nor I.  But he was recommended to me by my old friend, Madame d'Oilly,
+as a freethinker, and at the same time by my aunt, Madame de la Roche-
+Jugan, as a religious man!"
+
+"How amusing!"
+
+"Nevertheless," said Camors, "he is intelligent and witty, and writes a
+fine hand."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"How?  What of me?"
+
+"Do you also write a good hand?"
+
+"I will show you, whenever you wish!"
+
+"Ah!  and will you write to me?"
+
+It is difficult to imagine the tone of supreme indifference and haughty
+persiflage with which the Marquise sustained this dialogue, without once
+slackening her pace, or glancing at her companion, or changing the proud
+and erect pose of her head.
+
+"I will write you either prose or verse, as you wish," said Camors.
+
+"Ah! you know how to compose verses?"
+
+"When I am inspired!"
+
+"And when are you inspired?"
+
+"Usually in the morning."
+
+"And we are now in the evening.  That is not complimentary to me."
+
+"But you, Madame, had no desire to inspire me, I think."
+
+"Why not, then?  I should be happy and proud to do so.  Do you know what
+I should like to put there?"  and she stopped suddenly before a rustic
+bridge, which spanned a murmuring rivulet.
+
+"I do not know!"
+
+"You can not even guess?  I should like to put an artificial rock there."
+
+"Why not a natural one?  In your place I should put a natural one!"
+
+"That is an idea," said the Marquise, and walking on she crossed the
+bridge.
+
+"But it really thunders.  I like to hear thunder in the country.  Do
+you?"
+
+"I prefer to hear it thunder at Paris."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because then I should not hear it."
+
+"You have no imagination."
+
+"I have; but I smother it."
+
+"Possibly.  I have suspected you of hiding your merits, and particularly
+from me."
+
+"Why should I conceal my merits from you?"
+
+"'Why should I conceal my merits' is good!"  said the Marquise,
+ironically.  "Why?  Out of charity, Monsieur, not to dazzle me, and in
+regard for my repose!  You are really too good, I assure you.  Here comes
+the rain."
+
+Large drops of rain began to fall on the dry leaves, and on the yellow
+sand of the alley.  The day was dying, and the sudden shower bent the
+boughs of the trees.
+
+"We must return," said the young woman; "this begins to get serious."
+
+She took, in haste, the path which led to the chateau; but after a few
+steps a bright flash broke over her head, the noise of the thunder
+resounded, and a deluge of rain fell upon the fields.
+
+There was fortunately, near by, a shelter in which the Marquise and her
+companion could take refuge.  It was a ruin, preserved as an ornament to
+the park, which had formerly been the chapel of the ancient chateau.
+It was almost as large as the village chapel--the broken walls half
+concealed under a thick mantle of ivy.  Its branches had pushed through
+the roof and mingled with the boughs of the old trees which surrounded
+and shaded it.  The timbers had disappeared.  The extremity of the choir,
+and the spot formerly occupied by the altar, were alone covered by the
+remains of the roof.  Wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, and other garden tools
+were piled there.
+
+The Marquise had to take refuge in the midst of this rubbish, in the
+narrow space, and her companion followed her.
+
+The storm, in the mean time, increased in violence.  The rain fell in
+torrents through the old walls, inundating the soil in the ancient nave.
+The lightning flashed incessantly.  Every now and then fragments of earth
+and stone detached themselves from the roof, and fell into the choir.
+
+"I find this magnificent!"  said Madame de Campvallon.
+
+"I also," said Camors, raising his eyes to the crumbling roof which half
+protected them; "but I do not know whether we are safe here!"
+
+"If you fear, you would better go!"  said the Marquise.
+
+"I fear for you."
+
+"You are too good, I assure you."
+
+She took off her cap and brushed it with her glove, to remove the drops
+of rain which had fallen upon it.  After a slight pause, she suddenly
+raised her uncovered head and cast on Camors one of those searching looks
+which prepares a man for an important question.
+
+"Cousin!"  she said, "if you were sure that one of these flashes of
+lightning would kill you in a quarter of an hour, what would you do?"
+
+"Why, cousin, naturally I should take a last farewell of you."
+
+"How?"
+
+He regarded her steadily, in his turn.  "Do you know," he said, "there
+are moments when I am tempted to think you a devil?"
+
+"Truly!  Well, there are times when I am tempted to think so myself--for
+example, at this moment.  Do you know what I should wish?  I wish I could
+control the lightning, and in two seconds you would cease to exist."
+
+"For what reason?"
+
+"Because I recollect there was a man to whom I offered myself, and who
+refused me, and that this man still lives.  And this displeases me a
+little--a great deal--passionately."
+
+"Are you serious, Madame?"  replied Camors.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I hope you did not think so.  I am not so wicked.  It was a joke--and in
+bad taste, I admit.  But seriously now, cousin, what is your opinion of
+me?  What kind of woman has time made me?"
+
+"I swear to you I am entirely ignorant."
+
+"Admitting I had become, as you did me the honor to suppose, a diabolical
+person, do you think you had nothing to do with it?  Tell me!  Do you not
+believe that there is in the life of a woman a decisive hour, when the
+evil seed which is cast upon her soul may produce a terrible harvest?
+Do you not believe this?  Answer me!  And should I not be excusable if I
+entertained toward you the sentiment of an exterminating angel; and have
+I not some merit in being what I am--a good woman, who loves you well--
+with a little rancor, but not much--and who wishes you all sorts of
+prosperity in this world and the next?  Do not answer me: it might
+embarrass you, and it would be useless."
+
+She left her shelter, and turned her face toward the lowering sky to see
+whether the storm was over.
+
+"It has stopped raining," she said, "let us go."
+
+She then perceived that the lower part of the nave had been transformed
+into a lake of mud and water.  She stopped at its brink, and uttered a
+little cry:
+
+"What shall I do?"  she said, looking at her light shoes.  Then, turning
+toward Camors, she added, laughing:
+
+"Monsieur, will you get me a boat?"
+
+Camors, himself, recoiled from stepping into the greasy mud and stagnant
+water which filled the whole space of the nave.
+
+"If you will wait a little," he said, "I shall find you some boots or
+sabots, no matter what."
+
+"It will be much easier," she said abruptly, "for you to carry me to the
+door;" and without waiting for the young man's reply, she tucked up her
+skirts carefully, and when she had finished, she said, "Carry me!"
+
+He looked at her with astonishment, and thought for a moment she was
+jesting; but soon saw she was perfectly serious.
+
+"Of what are you afraid?"  she asked.
+
+"I am not at all afraid," he answered.
+
+"Is it that you are not strong enough?"
+
+"Mon Dieu!  I should think I was."
+
+He took her in his arms, as in a cradle, while she held up her skirts
+with both hands.  He then descended the steps and moved toward the door
+with his strange burden.  He was obliged to be very careful not to slip
+on the wet earth, and this absorbed him during the first few steps; but
+when he found his footing more sure, he felt a natural curiosity to
+observe the countenance of the Marquise.
+
+The uncovered head of the young woman rested a little on the arm with
+which he held her.  Her lips were slightly parted with a half-wicked
+smile that showed her fine white teeth; the same expression of
+ungovernable malice burned in her dark eyes, which she riveted for some
+seconds on those of Camors with persistent penetration--then suddenly
+veiled them under the fringe of her dark lashes.  This glance sent a
+thrill like lightning to his very marrow.
+
+"Do you wish to drive me mad?"  he murmured.
+
+"Who knows?"  she replied.
+
+The same moment she disengaged herself from his arms, and placing her
+foot on the ground again, left the ruin.
+
+They reached the chateau without exchanging a word.  Just before entering
+the house the young Marquise turned toward Camors and said to him:
+
+"Be sure that at heart I am very good, really."
+
+Notwithstanding this assertion, Camors was yet more determined to leave
+the next morning, as he had previously decided.  He carried away the most
+painful impression of the scene of that evening.
+
+She had wounded his pride, inflamed his hopeless passion, and disquieted
+his honor.
+
+"What is this woman, and what does she want of me?  Is it love or
+vengeance that inspires her with this fiendish coquetry?"  he asked
+himself.  Whatever it was, Camors was not such a novice in similar
+adventures as not to perceive clearly the yawning abyss under the broken
+ice.  He resolved sincerely to close it again between them, and forever.
+The best way to succeed in this, avowedly, was to cease all intercourse
+with the Marquise.  But how could such conduct be explained to the
+General, without awakening his suspicion and lowering his wife in his
+esteem?  That plan was impossible.  He armed himself with all his
+courage, and resigned himself to endure with resolute soul all the trials
+which the love, real or pretended, of the Marquise reserved for him.
+
+He had at this time a singular idea.  He was a member of several of the
+most aristocratic clubs.  He organized a chosen group of men from the
+elite of his companions, and formed with them a secret association, of
+which the object was to fix and maintain among its members the principles
+and points of honor in their strictest form.  This society, which had
+only been vaguely spoken of in public under the name of "Societe des
+Raffines," and also as "The Templars" which latter was its true name--
+had nothing in common with "The Devourers," illustrated by Balzac.
+It had nothing in it of a romantic or dramatic character.  Those who
+composed this club did not, in any way, defy ordinary morals, nor set
+themselves above the laws of their country.  They did not bind themselves
+by any vows of mutual aid in extremity.  They bound themselves simply by
+their word of honor to observe, in their reciprocal relations, the rules
+of purest honor.
+
+These rules were specified in their code.  The text it is difficult to
+give; but it was based entirely on the point of honor, and regulated the
+affairs of the club, such as the card-table, the turf, duelling, and
+gallantry.  For example, any member was disqualified from belonging to
+this association who either insulted or interfered with the wife or
+relative of one of his colleagues.  The only penalty was exclusion: but
+the consequences of this exclusion were grave; for all the members ceased
+thereafter to associate with, recognize, or even bow to the offender.
+The Templars found in this secret society many advantages.  It was a
+great security in their intercourse with one another, and in the
+different circumstances of daily life, where they met continually either
+at the opera, in salons, or on the turf.
+
+Camors was an exception among his companions and rivals in Parisian life
+by the systematic decision of his doctrine.  It was not so much an
+embodiment of absolute scepticism and practical materialism; but the want
+of a moral law is so natural to man, and obedience to higher laws so
+sweet to him, that the chosen adepts to whom the project of Camors was
+submitted accepted it with enthusiasm.  They were happy in being able to
+substitute a sort of positive and formal religion for restraints so
+limited as their own confused and floating notions of honor.  For Camors
+himself, as is easily understood, it was a new barrier which he wished to
+erect between himself and the passion which fascinated him.  He attached
+himself to this with redoubled force, as the only moral bond yet left
+him.  He completed his work by making the General accept the title of
+President of the Association.  The General, to whom Honor was a sort of
+mysterious but real goddess, was delighted to preside over the worship of
+his idol.  He felt flattered by his young friend's selection, and
+esteemed him the more.
+
+It was the middle of winter.  The Marquise Campvallon had resumed for
+some time her usual course of life, which was at the same time strict but
+elegant.  Punctual at church every morning, at the Bois and at charity
+bazaars during the day, at the opera or the theatres in the evening, she
+had received M. de Camors without the shadow of apparent emotion.  She
+even treated him more simply and more naturally than ever, with no
+recurrence to the past, no allusion to the scene in the park during the
+storm; as if she had, on that day, disclosed everything that had lain
+hidden in her heart.  This conduct so much resembled indifference, that
+Camors should have been delighted; but he was not--on the contrary he was
+annoyed by it.  A cruel but powerful interest, already too dear to his
+blase soul, was disappearing thus from his life.  He was inclined to
+believe that Madame de Campvallon possessed a much less complicated
+character than he had fancied; and that little by little absorbed in
+daily trifles, she had become in reality what she pretended to be--a good
+woman, inoffensive, and contented with her lot.
+
+He was one evening in his orchestra-stall at the opera.  They were
+singing The Huguenots.  The Marquise occupied her box between the
+columns.  The numerous acquaintances Camors met in the passages during
+the first entr'acte prevented his going as soon as usual to pay his
+respects to his cousin.  At last, after the fourth act, he went to visit
+her in her box, where he found her alone, the General having descended to
+the parterre for a few moments.  He was astonished, on entering, to find
+traces of tears on the young woman's cheeks.  Her eyes were even moist.
+She seemed displeased at being surprised in the very act of
+sentimentality.
+
+"Music always excites my nerves," she said.
+
+"Indeed!"  said Camors.  "You, who always reproach me with hiding my
+merits, why do you hide yours?  If you are still capable of weeping, so
+much the better."
+
+"No!  I claim no merit for that.  Oh, heavens!  If you only knew!  It is
+quite the contrary."
+
+"What a mystery you are!"
+
+"Are you very curious to fathom this mystery?  Only that?  Very well--be
+happy!  It is time to put an end to this."
+
+She drew her chair from the front of the box out of public view, and,
+turning toward Camors, continued: "You wish to know what I am, what I
+feel, and what I think; or rather, you wish to know simply whether I
+dream of love?  Very well, I dream only of that!  Have I lovers, or have
+I not?  I have none, and never shall have, but that will not be because
+of my virtue.  I believe in nothing, except my own self-esteem and my
+contempt of others.  The little intrigues, the petty passions, which I
+see in the world, make me indignant to the bottom of my soul.  It seems
+to me that women who give themselves for so little must be base
+creatures.  As for myself, I remember having said to you one day--it is a
+million years since then!--that my person is sacred to me; and to commit
+a sacrilege I should wish, like the vestals of Rome, a love as great as
+my crime, and as terrible as death.  I wept just now during that
+magnificent fourth act.  It was not because I listened to the most
+marvellous music ever heard on this earth; it was because I admire and
+envy passionately the superb and profound love of that time.  And it is
+ever thus--when I read the history of the glorious sixteenth century, I
+am in ecstacies.  How well those people knew how to love and how to die!
+One night of love--then death.  That is delightful.  Now, cousin, you
+must leave me.  We are observed.  They will believe we love each other,
+and as we have not that pleasure, it is useless to incur the penalties.
+Since I am still in the midst of the court of Charles Tenth, I pity you,
+with your black coat and round hat.  Good-night."
+
+"I thank you very much," replied Camors, taking the hand she extended to
+him coldly, and left the box.  He met M. de Campvallon in the passage.
+
+"Parbleu! my dear friend," said the General, seizing him by the arm.
+"I must communicate to you an idea which has been in my brain all the
+evening."
+
+"What idea, General?"
+
+"Well, there are here this evening a number of charming young girls.
+This set me to thinking of you, and I even said to my wife that we must
+marry you to one of these young women!"
+
+"Oh, General!"
+
+"Well, why not?"
+
+"That is a very serious thing--if one makes a mistake in his choice--that
+is everything."
+
+"Bah!  it is not so difficult a thing.  Take a wife like mine, who has a
+great deal of religion, not much imagination, and no fancies.  That is
+the whole secret.  I tell you this in confidence, my dear fellow!"
+
+"Well, General, I will think of it."
+
+"Do think of it," said the General, in a serious tone; and went to join
+his young wife, whom he understood so well.
+
+As to her, she thoroughly understood herself, and analyzed her own
+character with surprising truth.
+
+Madame de Campvallon was just as little what her manner indicated as was
+M. de Camors on his side.  Both were altogether exceptional in French
+society.  Equally endowed by nature with energetic souls and enlightened
+minds, both carried innate depravity to a high degree.  The artificial
+atmosphere of high Parisian civilization destroys in women the sentiment
+and the taste for duty, and leaves them, nothing but the sentiment and
+the taste for pleasure.  They lose in the midst of this enchanted and
+false life, like theatrical fairyland, the true idea of life in general,
+and Christian life in particular.  And we can confidently affirm that all
+those who do not make for themselves, apart from the crowd, a kind of
+Thebaid--and there are such--are pagans.  They are pagans, because the
+pleasures of the senses and of the mind alone interest them, and they
+have not once, during the year, an impression of the moral law, unless
+the sentiment, which some of them detest, recalls it to them.  They are
+pagans, like the beautiful, worldly Catholics of the fifteenth century--
+loving luxury, rich stuffs, precious furniture, literature, art,
+themselves, and love.  They were charming pagans, like Marie Stuart,
+and capable, like her, of remaining true Catholics even under the axe.
+
+We are speaking, let it be understood, of the best of the elite--of those
+that read, and of those that dream.  As to the rest, those who
+participate in the Parisian life on its lighter side, in its childish
+whirl, and the trifling follies it entails, who make rendezvous, waste
+their time, who dress and are busy day and night doing nothing, who dance
+frantically in the rays of the Parisian sun, without thought, without
+passion, without virtue, and even without vice--we must own it is
+impossible to imagine anything more contemptible.
+
+The Marquise de Campvallon was then--as she truly said to the man she
+resembled--a great pagan; and, as she also said to herself in one of her
+serious moments when a woman's destiny is decided by the influence of
+those they love, Camors had sown in her heart a seed which had
+marvellously fructified.
+
+Camors dreamed little of reproaching himself for it, but struck with all
+the harmony that surrounded the Marquise, he regretted more bitterly than
+ever the fatality which separated them.
+
+He felt, however, more sure of himself, since he had bound himself by the
+strictest obligations of honor.  He abandoned himself from this moment
+with less scruple to the emotions, and to the danger against which he
+believed himself invincibly protected.  He did not fear to seek often the
+society of his beautiful cousin, and even contracted the habit of
+repairing to her house two or three times a week, after leaving the
+Chamber of Deputies.  Whenever he found her alone, their conversation
+invariably assumed a tone of irony and of raillery, in which both
+excelled.  He had not forgotten her reckless confidences at the opera,
+and recalled it to her, asking her whether she had yet discovered that
+hero of love for whom she was looking, who should be, according to her
+ideas, a villain like Bothwell, or a musician like Rizzio.
+
+"There are," she replied, "villains who are also musicians; but that is
+imagination.  Sing me, then, something apropos."
+
+It was near the close of winter.  The Marquise gave a ball.  Her fetes
+were justly renowned for their magnificence and good taste.  She did the
+honors with the grace of a queen.  This evening she wore a very simple
+costume, as was becoming in the courteous hostess.  It was a gown of dark
+velvet, with a train; her arms were bare, without jewels; a necklace of
+large pearls lay on her rose-tinted bosom, and the heraldic coronet
+sparkled on her fair hair.
+
+Camors caught her eye as he entered, as if she were watching for him.
+He had seen her the previous evening, and they had had a more lively
+skirmish than usual.  He was struck by her brilliancy--her beauty
+heightened, without doubt, by the secret ardor of the quarrel, as if
+illuminated by an interior flame, with all the clear, soft splendor of a
+transparent alabaster vase.
+
+When he advanced to join her and salute her, yielding, against his will,
+to an involuntary movement of passionate admiration, he said:
+
+"You are truly beautiful this evening.  Enough so to make one commit a
+crime."
+
+She looked fixedly in his eyes, and replied:
+
+"I should like to see that," and then left him, with superb nonchalance.
+
+The General approached, and tapping the Count on the shoulder, said:
+
+"Camors!  you do not dance, as usual.  Let us play a game of piquet."
+
+"Willingly, General;" and traversing two or three salons they reached the
+private boudoir of the Marquise.  It was a small oval room, very lofty,
+hung with thick red silk tapestry, covered with black and white flowers.
+As the doors were removed, two heavy curtains isolated the room
+completely from the neighboring gallery.  It was there that the General
+usually played cards and slept during his fetes.  A small card-table was
+placed before a divan.  Except this addition, the boudoir preserved its
+every-day aspect.  Woman's work, half finished, books, journals, and
+reviews were strewn upon the furniture.  They played two or three games,
+which the General won, as Camors was very abstracted.
+
+"I reproach myself, young man," said the former, "in having kept you so
+long away from the ladies.  I give you back your liberty--I shall cast my
+eye on the journals."
+
+"There is nothing new in them, I think," said Camors, rising.  He took up
+a newspaper himself, and placing his back against the mantelpiece, warmed
+his feet, one after the other.  The General threw himself on the divan,
+ran his eye over the 'Moniteur de l'Armee', approving of some military
+promotions, and criticising others; and, little by little, he fell into a
+doze, his head resting on his chest.
+
+But Camors was not reading.  He listened vaguely to the music of the
+orchestra, and fell into a reverie.  Through these harmonies, through the
+murmurs and warm perfume of the ball, he followed, in thought, all the
+evolutions of her who was mistress and queen of all.  He saw her proud
+and supple step--he heard her grave and musical voice--he felt her
+breath.
+
+This young man had exhausted everything.  Love and pleasure had no longer
+for him secrets or temptations; but his imagination, cold and blase, had
+arisen all inflamed before this beautiful, living, palpitating statue.
+She was really for him more than a woman--more than a mortal.
+The antique fables of amorous goddesses and drunken Bacchantes--the
+superhuman voluptuousness unknown in terrestrial pleasures--were in reach
+of his hand, separated from him only by the shadow of this sleeping old
+man.  But a shadow was ever between them--it was honor.
+
+His eyes, as if lost in thought, were fixed straight before him on the
+curtain opposite the chimney.  Suddenly this curtain was noiselessly
+raised, and the young Marquise appeared, her brow surmounted by her
+coronet.  She threw a rapid glance over the boudoir, and after a moment's
+pause, let the curtain fall gently, and advanced directly toward Camors,
+who stood dazzled and immovable.  She took both his hands, without
+speaking, looked at his steadily--throwing a rapid glance at her husband,
+who still slept--and, standing on tiptoe, offered her lips to the young
+man.
+
+Bewildered, and forgetting all else, he bent, and imprinted a kiss on her
+lips.
+
+At that very moment, the General made a sudden movement and woke up; but
+the same instant the Marquise was standing before him, her hands resting
+on the card-table; and smiling upon him, she said, "Good-morning, my
+General!"
+
+The General murmured a few words of apology, but she laughingly pushed
+him back on his divan.
+
+"Continue your nap," she said; "I have come in search of my cousin, for
+the last cotillon."  The General obeyed.
+
+She passed out by the gallery.  The young man; pale as a spectre,
+followed her.
+
+Passing under the curtain, she turned toward him with a wild light
+burning in her eyes.  Then, before she was lost in the throng, she
+whispered, in a low, thrilling voice:
+
+"There is the crime!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE FIRST ACT OF THE TRAGEDY
+
+Camors did not attempt to rejoin the Marquise, and it seemed to him that
+she also avoided him.  A quarter of an hour later, he left the Hotel
+Campvallon.
+
+He returned immediately home.  A lamp was burning in his chamber.  When
+he saw himself in the mirror, his own face terrified him.  This exciting
+scene had shaken his nerves.
+
+He could no longer control himself.  His pupil had become his master.
+The fact itself did not surprise him.  Woman is more exalted than man in
+morality.  There is no virtue, no devotion, no heroism in which she does
+not surpass him; but once impelled to the verge of the abyss, she falls
+faster and lower than man.  This is attributable to two causes: she has
+more passion, and she has no honor.  For honor is a reality and must not
+be underrated.  It is a noble, delicate, and salutary quality.  It
+elevates manly attributes; in fact, it constitutes the modesty of man.
+It is sometimes a force, and always a grace.  But to think that honor is
+all-sufficient; that in the face of great interests, great passions,
+great trials in life, it is a support and an infallible defence; that it
+can enforce the precepts which come from God--in fact that it can replace
+God--this is a terrible mistake.  It exposes one in a fatal moment to the
+loss of one's self-esteem, and to fall suddenly and forever into that
+dismal ocean of bitterness where Camors at that instant was struggling in
+despair, like a drowning man in the darkness of midnight.
+
+He abandoned himself, on this evil night, to a final conflict full of
+agony; and he was beaten.
+
+The next evening at six o'clock he was at the house of the Marquise.  He
+found her in her boudoir, surrounded by all her regal luxury.  She was
+half buried in a fauteuil in the chimney-corner, looking a little pale
+and fatigued.  She received him with her usual coldness and self-
+possession.
+
+"Good-day," she said.  "How are you?"
+
+"Not very well," replied Camors.
+
+"What is the matter?"
+
+"I fancy that you know."
+
+She opened her large eyes wide with surprise, but did not reply.
+
+"I entreat you, Madame," continued Camors, smiling--" no more music, the
+curtain is raised, and the drama has begun."
+
+"Ah! we shall see."
+
+"Do you love me?"  he continued; "or were you simply acting, to try me,
+last night?  Can you, or will you, tell me?"
+
+"I certainly could, but I do not wish to do so."
+
+"I had thought you more frank."
+
+"I have my hours."
+
+"Well, then," said Camors, "if your hours of frankness have passed, mine
+have begun."
+
+"That would be compensation," she replied.
+
+"And I will prove it to you," continued Camors.
+
+"I shall make a fete of it," said the Marquise, throwing herself back on
+the sofa, as if to make herself comfortable in order to enjoy an
+agreeable conversation.
+
+"I love you, Madame; and as you wish to be loved.  I love you devotedly
+and unto death--enough to kill myself, or you!"
+
+"That is well," said the Marquise, softly.
+
+"But," he continued in a hoarse and constrained tone, "in loving you, in
+telling you of it, in trying to make you share my love, I violate basely
+the obligations of honor of which you know, and others of which you know
+not.  It is a crime, as you have said.  I do not try to extenuate my
+offence.  I see it, I judge it, and I accept it.  I break the last moral
+tie that is left me; I leave the ranks of men of honor, and I leave also
+the ranks of humanity.  I have nothing human left except my love, nothing
+sacred but you; but my crime elevates itself by its magnitude.  Well, I
+interpret it thus: I imagine two beings, equally free and strong, loving
+and valuing each other beyond all else, having no affection, no loyalty,
+no devotion, no honor, except toward each other--but possessing all for
+each other in a supreme degree.
+
+"I give and consecrate absolutely to you, my person, all that I can be,
+or may become, on condition of an equal return, still preserving the same
+social conventionalities, without which we should both be miserable.
+
+"Secretly united, and secretly isolated; though in the midst of the human
+herd, governing and despising it; uniting our gifts, our faculties, and
+our powers, our two Parisian royalties--yours, which can not be greater,
+and mine, which shall become greater if you love me and living thus, one
+for the other, until death.  You have dreamed, you told me, of strange
+and almost sacrilegious love.  Here it is; only before accepting it,
+reflect well, for I assure you it is a serious thing.  My love for you is
+boundless.  I love you enough to disdain and trample under foot that
+which the meanest human being still respects.  I love you enough to find
+in you alone, in your single esteem, and in your sole tenderness, in the
+pride and madness of being yours, oblivion and consolation for friendship
+outraged, faith betrayed, and honor lost.  But, Madame, this is a
+sentiment which you will do well not to trifle with.  You should
+thoroughly understand this.  If you desire my love, if you consent to
+this alliance, opposed to all human laws, but grand and singular also,
+deign to tell me so, and I shall fall at your feet.  If you do not wish
+it, if it terrifies you, if you are not prepared for the double
+obligation it involves, tell me so, and fear not a word of reproach.
+Whatever it might cost me--I would ruin my life, I would leave you
+forever, and that which passed yesterday should be eternally forgotten."
+
+He ceased, and remained with his eyes fixed on the young woman with a
+burning anxiety.  As he went on speaking her air became more grave; she
+listened to him, her head a little inclined toward him in an attitude of
+overpowering interest, throwing upon him at intervals a glance full of
+gloomy fire.  A slight but rapid palpitation of the bosom, a scarcely
+perceptible quivering of the nostrils, alone betrayed the storm raging
+within her.
+
+"This," she said, after a moment's silence, "becomes really interesting;
+but you do not intend to leave this evening, I suppose?"
+
+"No," said Camors.
+
+"Very well," she replied, inclining her head in sign of dismissal,
+without offering her hand; "we shall see each other again."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"At an early day."
+
+He thought she required time for reflection, a little terrified doubtless
+by the monster she had evoked; he saluted her gravely and departed.
+
+The next day, and on the two succeeding days, he vainly presented himself
+at her door.
+
+The Marquise was either dining out or dressing.
+
+It was for Camors a whole century of torment.  One thought which often
+disquieted him revisited him with double poignancy.  The Marquise did not
+love him.  She only wished to revenge herself for the past, and after
+disgracing him would laugh at him.  She had made him sign the contract,
+and then had escaped him.  In the midst of these tortures of his pride,
+his passion, instead of weakening, increased.
+
+The fourth day after their interview he did not go to her house.  He
+hoped to meet her in the evening at the Viscountess d'Oilly's, where he
+usually saw her every Friday.  This lady had been formerly the most
+tender friend of the Count's father.  It was to her the Count had thought
+proper to confide the education of his son.
+
+Camors had preserved for her a kind of affection.  She was an amiable
+woman, whom he liked and laughed at.
+
+No longer young, she had been compelled to renounce gallantry, which had
+been the chief occupation of her youth, and never having had much taste
+for devotion, she conceived the idea of having a salon.  She received
+there some distinguished men, savants and artists, who piqued themselves
+on being free-thinkers.
+
+The Viscountess, in order to fit herself for her new position, resolved
+to enlighten herself.  She attended public lectures and conferences,
+which began to be fashionable.  She spoke easily about spontaneous
+generation.  She manifested a lively surprise when Camors, who delighted
+in tormenting her, deigned to inform her that men were descended from
+monkeys.
+
+"Now, my friend," she said to him, "I can not really admit that.  How can
+you think your grandfather was a monkey, you who are so handsome?"
+
+She reasoned on everything with the same force.
+
+Although she boasted of being a sceptic, sometimes in the morning she
+went out, concealed by a thick veil, and entered St. Sulpice, where she
+confessed and put herself on good terms with God, in case He should
+exist.  She was rich and well connected, and in spite of the
+irregularities of her youth, the best people visited her house.
+
+Madame de Campvallon permitted herself to be introduced by M. de Camors.
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan followed her there, because she followed her
+everywhere, and took her son Sigismund.  On this evening the reunion was
+small.  M. de Camors had only been there a few moments, when he had the
+satisfaction of seeing the General and the Marquise enter.  She
+tranquilly expressed to him her regret at not having been at home the
+preceding day; but it was impossible to hope for a more decided
+explanation in a circle so small, and under the vigilant eye of Madame de
+la Roche-Jugan.  Camors interrogated vainly the face of his young cousin.
+It was as beautiful and cold as usual.  His anxiety increased; he would
+have given his life at that moment to hear her say one word of love.
+
+The Viscountess liked the play of wit, as she had little herself.  They
+played at her house such little games as were then fashionable.  Those
+little games are not always innocent, as we shall see.
+
+They had distributed pencils, pens, and packages of paper--some of the
+players sitting around large tables, and some in separate chairs--and
+scratched mysteriously, in turn, questions and answers.  During this time
+the General played whist with Madame de la Roche-Jugan.  Madame
+Campvallon did not usually take part in these games, as they fatigued
+her.  Camors was therefore astonished to see her accept the pencil and
+paper offered her.
+
+This singularity awakened his attention and put him on his guard.  He
+himself joined in the game, contrary to his custom, and even charged
+himself with collecting in the basket the small notes as they were
+written.
+
+An hour passed without any special incident.  The treasures of wit were
+dispensed.  The most delicate and unexpected questions--such as, "What is
+love?"  "Do you think that friendship can exist between the sexes?"
+"Is it sweeter to love or to beloved?"--succeeded each other with
+corresponding replies.  All at once the Marquise gave a slight scream,
+and they saw a drop of blood trickle down her forehead.  She laughed, and
+showed her little silver pencil-case, which had a pen at one end, with
+which she had scratched her forehead in her abstraction.
+
+The attention of Camors was redoubled from this moment--the more so from
+a rapid and significant glance from the Marquise, which seemed to warn
+him of an approaching event.  She was sitting a little in shadow in one
+corner, in order to meditate more at ease on questions and answers.  An
+instant later Camors was passing around the room collecting notes.  She
+deposited one in the basket, slipping another into his hand with the cat-
+like dexterity of her sex.  In the midst of these papers, which each
+person amused himself with reading, Camors found no difficulty in
+retaining without remark the clandestine note of the Marquise.  It was
+written in red ink, a little pale, but very legible, and contained these
+words:
+
+     "I belong, soul, body, honor, riches, to my best-beloved cousin,
+     Louis de Camors, from this moment and forever.
+
+     "Written and signed with the pure blood of my veins, March 5, 185-.
+
+     "CHARLOTTE DE LUC. D'ESTRELLES."
+
+
+All the blood of Camors surged to his brain--a cloud came over his eyes
+--he rested his hand on the marble table, then suddenly his face was
+covered with a mortal paleness.  These symptoms did not arise from
+remorse or fear; his passion overshadowed all.  He felt a boundless joy.
+He saw the world at his feet.
+
+It was by this act of frankness and of extraordinary audacity, seasoned
+by the bloody mysticism so familiar to the sixteenth century, which she
+adored, that the Marquise de Campvallon surrendered herself to her lover
+and sealed their fatal union.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AN ANONYMOUS LETTER
+
+Nearly six weeks had passed after this last episode.  It was five o'clock
+in the afternoon and the Marquise awaited Camors, who was to come after
+the session of the Corps Legislatif.  There was a sudden knock at one of
+the doors of her room, which communicated with her husband's apartment.
+It was the General.  She remarked with surprise, and even with fear, that
+his countenance was agitated.
+
+"What is the matter with you, my dear?"  she said.  "Are you ill?"
+
+"No," replied the General, "not at all."
+
+He placed himself before her, and looked at her some moments before
+speaking, his eyes rolling wildly.
+
+"Charlotte!"  he said at last, with a painful smile, "I must own to you
+my folly.  I am almost mad since morning--I have received such a singular
+letter.  Would you like to see it?"
+
+"If you wish," she replied.
+
+He took a letter from his pocket, and gave it to her.  The writing was
+evidently carefully disguised, and it was not signed.
+
+"An anonymous letter?"  said the Marquise, whose eyebrows were slightly
+raised, with an expression of disdain; then she read the letter, which
+was as follows:
+
+     "A true friend, General, feels indignant at seeing your confidence
+     and your loyalty abused.  You are deceived by those whom you love
+     most.
+
+     "A man who is covered with your favors and a woman who owes
+     everything to you are united by a secret intimacy which outrages
+     you.  They are impatient for the hour when they can divide your
+     spoils.
+
+     "He who regards it as a pious duty to warn you does not desire to
+     calumniate any one.  He is sure that your honor is respected by her
+     to whom you have confided it, and that she is still worthy of your
+     confidence and esteem.  She wrongs you in allowing herself to count
+     upon the future, which your best friend dates from your death.  He
+     seeks your widow and your estate.
+
+     "The poor woman submits against her will to the fascinations of a
+     man too celebrated for his successful affairs of the heart.  But
+     this man, your friend--almost your son--how can he excuse his
+     conduct?  Every honest person must be shocked by such behavior, and
+     particularly he whom a chance conversation informed of the fact, and
+     who obeys his conscience in giving you this information."
+
+The Marquise, after reading it, returned the letter coldly to the
+General.
+
+"Sign it Eleanore-Jeanne de la Roche-Jugan!"  she said.
+
+"Do you think so?"  asked the General.
+
+"It is as clear as day," replied the Marquise.  "These expressions betray
+her--'a pious duty to warn you--'celebrated for his successful affairs of
+the heart'--'every honest person.' She can disguise her writing, but not
+her style.  But what is still more conclusive is that which she
+attributes to Monsieur de Camors--for I suppose it alludes to him--and to
+his private prospects and calculations.  This can not have failed to
+strike you, as it has me, I suppose?"
+
+"If I thought this vile letter was her work," cried the General, "I never
+would see her again during my life."
+
+"Why not?  It is better to laugh at it!"
+
+The General began one of his solemn promenades across the room.  The
+Marquise looked uneasily at the clock.  Her husband, intercepting one of
+these glances, suddenly stopped.
+
+"Do you expect Camors to-day?"  he inquired.
+
+"Yes; I think he will call after the session."
+
+"I think he will," responded the General, with a convulsive smile.  "And
+do you know, my dear," he added, "the absurd idea which has haunted me
+since I received this infamous letter?--for I believe that infamy is
+contagious."
+
+"You have conceived the idea of observing our interview?"  said the
+Marquise, in a tone of indolent raillery.
+
+"Yes," said the General, "there--behind that curtain--as in a theatre;
+but, thank God!  I have been able to resist this base intention.  If ever
+I allow myself to play so mean a part, I should wish at least to do it
+with your knowledge and consent."
+
+"And do you ask me to consent to it?"  asked the Marquise.
+
+"My poor Charlotte!"  said the General, in a sad and almost supplicating
+tone, "I am an old fool--an overgrown child--but I feel that this
+miserable letter will poison my life.  I shall have no more an hour of
+peace and confidence.  What can you expect?  I was so cruelly deceived
+before.  I am an honorable man, but I have been taught that all men are
+not like myself.  There are some things which to me seem as impossible as
+walking on my head, yet I see others doing these things every day.  What
+can I say to you?  After reading this perfidious letter, I could not help
+recollecting that your intimacy with Camors has greatly increased of
+late!"
+
+"Without doubt," said the Marquise, "I am very fond of him!"
+
+"I remembered also your tete-a-tete with him, the other night, in the
+boudoir, during the ball.  When I awoke you had both an air of mystery.
+What mysteries could there be between you two?"
+
+"Ah, what indeed!"  said the Marquise, smiling.
+
+"And will you not tell me?"
+
+"You shall know it at the proper time."
+
+"Finally, I swear to you that I suspect neither of you--I neither suspect
+you of wronging me--of disgracing me--nor of soiling my name .  .  .  God
+help me!
+
+"But if you two should love each other, even while respecting my honor:
+if you love each other and confess it--if you two, even at my side, in my
+heart--if you, my two children, should be calculating with impatient eyes
+the progress of my old age--planning your projects for the future, and
+smiling at my approaching death--postponing your happiness only for my
+tomb you may think yourselves guiltless, but no, I tell you it would be
+shameful!"
+
+Under the empire of the passion which controlled him, the voice of the
+General became louder.  His common features assumed an air of sombre
+dignity and imposing grandeur.  A slight shade of paleness passed over
+the lovely face of the young woman and a slight frown contracted her
+forehead.
+
+By an effort, which in a better cause would have been sublime, she
+quickly mastered her weakness, and, coldly pointing out to her husband
+the draped door by which he had entered, said:
+
+"Very well, conceal yourself there!"
+
+"You will never forgive me?"
+
+"You know little of women, my friend, if you do not know that jealousy is
+one of the crimes they not only pardon but love."
+
+"My God, I am not jealous!"
+
+"Call it yourself what you will, but station yourself there!"
+
+"And you are sincere in wishing me to do so?"
+
+"I pray you to do so!  Retire in the interval, leave the door open, and
+when you hear Monsieur de Camors enter the court of the hotel, return."
+
+"No!"  said the General, after a moment's hesitation; "since I have gone
+so far"--and he sighed deeply "I do not wish to leave myself the least
+pretext for distrust.  If I leave you before he comes, I am capable of
+fancying--"
+
+"That I might secretly warn him?  Nothing more natural.  Remain here,
+then.  Only take a book; for our conversation, under such circumstances,
+can not be lively."
+
+He sat down.
+
+"But," he said, "what mystery can there be between you two?"
+
+"You shall hear!"  she said, with her sphinx-like smile.
+
+The General mechanically took up a book.  She stirred the fire, and
+reflected.  As she liked terror, danger, and dramatic incidents to blend
+with her intrigues, she should have been content; for at that moment
+shame, ruin, and death were at her door.  But, to tell the truth, it was
+too much for her; and when she looked, in the midst of the silence which
+surrounded her, at the true character and scope of the perils which
+surrounded her, she thought her brain would fail and her heart break.
+
+She was not mistaken as to the origin of the letter.  This shameful work
+had indeed been planned by Madame de la Roche-Jugan.  To do her justice,
+she had not suspected the force of the blow she was dealing.  She still
+believed in the virtue of the Marquise; but during the perpetual
+surveillance she had never relaxed, she could not fail to see the changed
+nature of the intercourse between Camors and the Marquise.  It must not
+be forgotten that she dreamed of securing for her son Sigismund the
+succession to her old friend; and she foresaw a dangerous rivalry--the
+germ of which she sought to destroy.  To awaken the distrust of the
+General toward Camors, so as to cause his doors to be closed against him,
+was all she meditated.  But her anonymous letter, like most villainies of
+this kind, was a more fatal and murderous weapon than its base author
+imagined.
+
+The young Marquise, then, mused while stirring the fire, casting, from
+time to time, a furtive glance at the clock.
+
+M. de Camors would soon arrive--how could she warn him?  In the present
+state of their relations it was not impossible that the very first words
+of.  Camors might immediately divulge their secret: and once betrayed,
+there was not only for her personal dishonor, a scandalous fall, poverty,
+a convent--but for her husband or her lover--perhaps for both--death!
+
+When the bell in the lower court sounded, announcing the Count's
+approach, these thoughts crowded into the brain of the Marquise like a
+legion of phantoms.  But she rallied her courage by a desperate effort
+and strained all her faculties to the execution of the plan she had
+hastily conceived, which was her last hope.  And one word, one gesture,
+one mistake, or one carelessness of her lover, might overthrow it in a
+second.  A moment later the door was opened by a servant, announcing M.
+de Camors.  Without speaking, she signed to her husband to gain his
+hiding-place.  The General, who had risen at the sound of the bell,
+seemed still to hesitate, but shrugging his shoulders, as if in disdain
+of himself, retired behind the curtain which faced the door.
+
+M. de Camors entered the room carelessly, and advanced toward the
+fireplace where sat the Marquise; his smiling lips half opened to speak,
+when he was struck by the peculiar expression on the face of the
+Marquise, and the words were frozen on his lips.  This look, fixed upon
+him from his entrance, had a strange, weird intensity, which, without
+expressing anything, made him fear everything.  But he was accustomed to
+trying situations, and as wary and prudent as he was intrepid.  He ceased
+to smile and did not speak, but waited.
+
+She gave him her hand without ceasing to look at him with the same
+alarming intensity.
+
+"Either she is mad," he said to himself, "or there is some great peril!"
+
+With the rapid perception of her genius and of her love, she felt he
+understood her; and not leaving him time to speak and compromise her,
+instantly said:
+
+"It is very kind of you to keep your promise."
+
+"Not at all," said Camors, seating himself.
+
+"Yes!  For you know you come here to be tormented."  There was a pause.
+
+"Have you at last become a convert to my fixed idea?"  she added after a
+second.
+
+"What fixed idea?  It seems to me you have a great many!"
+
+"Yes!  But I speak of a good one--my best one, at least--of your
+marriage!"
+
+"What!  again, cousin?"  said Camors, who, now assured of his danger and
+its nature, marched with a firmer foot over the burning soil.
+
+"Yes, again, cousin; and I will tell you another thing--I have found the
+person."
+
+"Ah!  Then I shall run away!"
+
+She met his smile with an imperious glance.
+
+"Then you still adhere to that plan?"  said Camors, laughing.
+
+"Most firmly!  I need not repeat to you my reasons--having preached about
+it all winter--in fact so much so as to disturb the General, who suspects
+some mystery between us."
+
+"The General?  Indeed!"
+
+"Oh, nothing serious, you must understand.  Well, let us resume the
+subject.  Miss Campbell will not do--she is too blonde--an odd objection
+for me to make by the way; not Mademoiselle de Silas--too thin; not
+Mademoiselle Rolet, in spite of her millions; not Mademoiselle
+d'Esgrigny--too much like the Bacquieres and Van-Cuyps.  All this is a
+little discouraging, you will admit; but finally everything clears up.
+I tell you I have discovered the right one--a marvel!"
+
+"Her name?"  said Camors.
+
+"Marie de Tecle!"
+
+There was silence.
+
+"Well, you say nothing," resumed the Marquise, "because you can have
+nothing to say!  Because she unites everything--personal beauty, family,
+fortune, everything--almost like a dream.  Then, too, your properties
+join.  You see how I have thought of everything, my friend!  I can not
+imagine how we never came to think of this before!"
+
+M. de Camors did not reply, and the Marquise began to be surprised at his
+silence.
+
+"Oh!"  she exclaimed; "you may look a long time--there can not be a
+single objection--you are caught this time.  Come, my friend, say yes, I
+implore you!"  And while her lips said "I implore you," in a tone of
+gracious entreaty, her look said, with terrible emphasis, "You must!"
+
+"Will you allow me to reflect upon it, Madame?"  he said at last.
+
+"No, my friend!"
+
+"But really," said Camors, who was very pale, "it seems to me you dispose
+of the hand of Mademoiselle de Tecle very readily.  Mademoiselle de Tecle
+is rich and courted on all sides--also, her great-uncle has ideas of the
+province, and her mother, ideas of religion, which might well--"
+
+"I charge myself with all that," interrupted the Marquise.
+
+"What a mania you have for marrying people!"
+
+"Women who do not make love, cousin, always have a mania for
+matchmaking."
+
+"But seriously, you will give me a few days for reflection?"
+
+"To reflect about what?  Have you not always told me you intended
+marrying and have been only waiting the chance?  Well, you never can find
+a better one than this; and if you let it slip, you will repent the rest
+of your life."
+
+"But give me time to consult my family!"
+
+"Your family--what a joke!  It seems to me you have reached full age; and
+then--what family?  Your aunt, Madame de la Roche-Jugan?"
+
+"Doubtless!  I do not wish to offend her:"
+
+"Ah, my dear cousin, don't be uneasy; suppress this uneasiness; I assure
+you she will be delighted!"
+
+"Why should she?"
+
+"I have my reasons for thinking so;" and the young woman in uttering
+these words was seized with a fit of sardonic laughter which came near
+convulsion, so shaken were her nerves by the terrible tension.
+
+Camors, to whom little by little the light fell stronger on the more
+obscure points of the terrible enigma proposed to him, saw the necessity
+of shortening a scene which had overtasked her faculties to an almost
+insupportable degree.  He rose:
+
+"I am compelled to leave you," he said; "for I am not dining at home.
+But I will come to-morrow, if you will permit me."
+
+"Certainly.  You authorize me to speak to the General?"
+
+"Well, yes, for I really can see no reasonable objection."
+
+"Very good.  I adore you!"  said the Marquise.  She gave him her hand,
+which he kissed and immediately departed.
+
+It would have required a much keener vision than that of M. de Campvallon
+to detect any break, or any discordance, in the audacious comedy which
+had just been played before him by these two great artists.
+
+The mute play of their eyes alone could have betrayed them; and that he
+could not see.
+
+As to their tranquil, easy, natural dialogue there was not in it a word
+which he could seize upon, and which did not remove all his disquietude,
+and confound all his suspicions.  From this moment, and ever afterward,
+every shadow was effaced from his mind; for the ability to imagine such
+a plot as that in which his wife in her despair had sought refuge, or to
+comprehend such depth of perversity, was not in the General's pure and
+simple spirit.
+
+When he reappeared before his wife, on leaving his concealment, he was
+constrained and awkward.  With a gesture of confusion and humility he
+took her hand, and smiled upon her with all the goodness and tenderness
+of his soul beaming from his face.
+
+At this moment the Marquise, by a new reaction of her nervous system,
+broke into weeping and sobbing; and this completed the General's despair.
+
+Out of respect to this worthy man, we shall pass over a scene the
+interest of which otherwise is not sufficient to warrant the unpleasant
+effect it would produce on all honest people.  We shall equally pass over
+without record the conversation which took place the next day between the
+Marquise and M. de Camors.
+
+Camors had experienced, as we have observed, a sentiment of repulsion at
+hearing the name of Mademoiselle de Tecle appear in the midst of this
+intrigue.  It amounted almost to horror, and he could not control the
+manifestation of it.  How could he conquer this supreme revolt of his
+conscience to the point of submitting to the expedient which would make
+his intrigue safe?  By what detestable sophistries he dared persuade
+himself that he owed everything to his accomplice--even this, we shall
+not attempt to explain.  To explain would be to extenuate, and that we
+wish not to do.  We shall only say that he resigned himself to this
+marriage.  On the path which he had entered a man can check himself as
+little as he can check a flash of lightning.
+
+As to the Marquise, one must have formed no conception of this depraved
+though haughty spirit, if astonished at her persistence, in cold blood,
+and after reflection, in the perfidious plot which the imminence of her
+danger had suggested to her.  She saw that the suspicions of the General
+might be reawakened another day in a more dangerous manner, if this
+marriage proved only a farce.  She loved Camors passionately; and she
+loved scarcely less the dramatic mystery of their liaison.  She had also
+felt a frantic terror at the thought of losing the great fortune which
+she regarded as her own; for the disinterestedness of her early youth had
+long vanished, and the idea of sinking miserably in the Parisian world,
+where she had long reigned by her luxury as well as her beauty, was
+insupportable to her.
+
+Love, mystery, fortune-she wished to preserve them all at any price; and
+the more she reflected, the more the marriage of Camors appeared to her
+the surest safeguard.
+
+It was true, it would give her a sort of rival.  But she had too high an
+opinion of herself to fear anything; and she preferred Mademoiselle de
+Tecle to any other, because she knew her, and regarded her as an inferior
+in everything.
+
+About fifteen days after, the General called on Madame de Tecle one
+morning, and demanded for M. de Camors her daughter's hand.  It would be
+painful to dwell on the joy which Madame de Tecle felt; and her only
+surprise was that Camors had not come in person to press his suit.  But
+Camors had not the heart to do so.  He had been at Reuilly since that
+morning, and called on Madame de Tecle, where he learned his overture was
+accepted.  Once having resolved on this monstrous action, he was
+determined to carry it through in the most correct manner, and we know he
+was master of all social arts.
+
+In the evening Madame de Tecle and her daughter, left alone, walked
+together a long time on their dear terrace, by the soft light of the
+stars--the daughter blessing her mother, and the mother thanking God--
+both mingling their hearts, their dreams, their kisses, and their tears
+--happier, poor women, than is permitted long to human beings.  The
+marriage took place the ensuing month.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A defensive attitude is never agreeable to a man
+Believing that it is for virtue's sake alone such men love them
+Determined to cultivate ability rather than scrupulousness
+Disenchantment which follows possession
+Have not that pleasure, it is useless to incur the penalties
+Inconstancy of heart is the special attribute of man
+Knew her danger, and, unlike most of them, she did not love it
+Put herself on good terms with God, in case He should exist
+Two persons who desired neither to remember nor to forget
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors, v2
+by Octave Feuillet
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MONSIEUR DE CAMORS
+
+By OCTAVE FEUILLET
+
+
+
+BOOK 3.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE COUNTESS DE CAMORS
+
+After passing the few weeks of the honeymoon at Reuilly, the Comte and
+Comtesse de Camors returned to Paris and established themselves at their
+hotel in the Rue de l'Imperatrice.  From this moment, and during the
+months that followed, the young wife kept up an active correspondence
+with her mother; and we here transcribe some of the letters, which will
+make us more intimately acquainted with the character of the young woman.
+
+
+     Madame de Camors to Madame de Tecle.
+                                                       "October.
+
+     "Am I happy?  No, my dearest mother!  No--not happy!  I have only
+     wings and soar to heaven like a bird!  I feel the sunshine in my
+     head, in my eyes, in my heart.
+
+     "It blinds me, it enchants me, it causes me to shed delicious tears!
+     Happy?  No, my tender mother; that is not possible, when I think
+     that I am his wife!  The wife--understand me--of him who has reigned
+     in my poor thoughts since I was able to think--of him whom I should
+     have chosen out of the whole universe!  When I remember that I am
+     his wife, that we are united forever, how I love life!  how I love
+     you!  how I love God!
+
+     "The Bois and the lake are within a few steps of us, as you know.
+     We ride thither nearly every morning, my husband and I!--I repeat,
+     I and my husband!  We go there, my husband and I--I and my husband!
+
+     "I know not how it is, but it is always delicious weather to me,
+     even when it rains--as it does furiously to-day; for we have just
+     come in, driven home by the storm.
+
+     "During our ride to-day, I took occasion to question him quietly as
+     to some points of our history which puzzled me.  First, why had he
+     married me?
+
+     "'Because you pleased me apparently, Miss Mary.' He likes to give me
+     this name, which recalls to him I know not what episode of my
+     untamed youth--untamed still to him.
+
+     "'If I pleased you, why did I see you so seldom?'
+
+     "'Because I did not wish to court you until I had decided on
+     marrying.'
+
+     "'How could I have pleased you, not being at all beautiful?'
+
+     "'You are not beautiful, it is true,' replies this cruel young man,
+     'but you are very pretty; and above all you are grace itself, like
+     your mother.'
+
+     "All these obscure points being cleared up to the complete
+     satisfaction of Miss Mary, Miss Mary took to fast galloping; not
+     because it was raining, but because she became suddenly--we do not
+     know the reason why--as red as a poppy.
+
+     "Oh, beloved mother!  how sweet it is to be loved by him we adore,
+     and to be loved precisely as we wish--as we have dreamed--according
+     to the exact programme of our young, romantic hearts!
+
+     "Did you ever believe I had ideas on such a delicate subject?  Yes,
+     dear mother, I had them.  Thus, it seemed to me there were many
+     different styles of loving--some vulgar, some pretentious, some
+     foolish, and others, again, excessively comic.  None of these seemed
+     suited to the Prince, our neighbor.  I ever felt he should love,
+     like the Prince he is, with grace and dignity; with serious
+     tenderness, a little stern perhaps; with amiability, but almost with
+     condescension--as a lover, but as a master, too--in fine, like my
+     husband!
+
+     "Dear angel, who art my mother!  be happy in my happiness, which was
+     your sole work.  I kiss your hands--I kiss your wings!
+
+     "I thank you!  I bless you!  I adore you!
+
+     "If you were near me, it would be too much happiness!  I should die,
+     I think.  Nevertheless, come to us very soon.  Your chamber awaits
+     you.  It is as blue as the heavens in which I float.  I have already
+     told you this, but I repeat it.
+
+     "Good-by, mother of the happiest woman in the world!
+
+                                             "MISS MARY,
+
+                                        "Comtesse de Camors."
+
+                    ...............................
+
+                                             "November.
+
+     "MY MOTHER:
+
+     "You made me weep--I who await you every morning.  I will say
+     nothing to you, however; I will not beg you.  If the health of my
+     grandfather seems to you so feeble as to demand your presence, I
+     know no prayer would take you away from your duty.  Nor would I make
+     the prayer, my angel mother!
+
+     "But exaggerate nothing, I pray you, and think your little Marie can
+     not pass by the blue chamber without feeling a swelling of the
+     heart.  Apart from this grief which you cause her, she continues to
+     be as happy as even you could wish.
+
+     "Her charming Prince is ever charming and ever her Prince!  He takes
+     her to see the monuments, the museums, the theatres, like the poor
+     little provincial that she is.  Is it not touching on the part of so
+     great a personage?
+
+     "He is amused at my ecstasies--for I have ecstasies.  Do not breathe
+     it to my Uncle Des Rameures, but Paris is superb!  The days here
+     count double our own for thought and life.
+
+     "My husband took me to Versailles yesterday.  I suspect that this,
+     in the eyes of the people here, is rather a ridiculous episode; for
+     I notice the Count did not boast of it.  Versailles corresponds
+     entirely with the impressions you had given me of it; for there is
+     not the slightest change since you visited it with my grandfather.
+
+     "It is grand, solemn, and cold.  There is, though, a new and very
+     curious museum in the upper story of the palace, consisting chiefly
+     of original portraits of the famous men of history.  Nothing pleases
+     me more than to see these heroes of my memory passing before me in
+     grand procession--from Charles the Bold to George Washington.  Those
+     faces my imagination has so often tried to evoke, that it seems to
+     me we are in the Elysian Fields, and hold converse with the dead:
+
+     "You must know, my mother, I was familiar with many things that
+     surprised M. de Camors very much.  He was greatly struck by my
+     knowledge of science and my genius.  I did no more, as you may
+     imagine, than respond to his questions; but it seemed to astonish
+     him that I could respond at all.
+
+     "Why should he ask me these things?  If he did not know how to
+     distinguish the different Princesses of Conti, the answer is simple.
+
+     "But I knew, because my mother taught me.  That is simple enough
+     too.
+
+     "We dined afterward, at my suggestion, at a restaurant.  Oh, my
+     mother!  this was the happiest moment of my life!  To dine at a
+     restaurant with my husband was the most delightful of all
+     dissipations!
+
+     "I have said he seemed astonished at my learning.  I ought to add in
+     general, he seemed astonished whenever I opened my lips.  Did he
+     imagine me a mute?  I speak little, I acknowledge, however, for he
+     inspires me with a ceaseless fear: I am afraid of displeasing him,
+     of appearing silly before him, or pretentious, or pedantic.  The day
+     when I shall be at ease with him, and when I can show him my good
+     sense and gratitude--if that day ever comes--I shall be relieved of
+     a great weight on my mind, for truly I sometimes fear he looks on me
+     as a child.
+
+     "The other day I stopped before a toy-shop on the Boulevard.  What a
+     blunder!  And as he saw my eye fixed on a magnificent squadron of
+     dolls--
+
+     "'Do you wish one, Miss Mary?' he said.
+
+     "Was not this horrible, my mother--from him who knows everything
+     except the Princesses of Conti?  He explained everything to me; but
+     briefly in a word, as if to a person he despaired of ever making
+     understand him.  And I understand so well all the time, my poor
+     little mother!
+
+     "But so much the better, say I; for if he loves me while thinking me
+     silly, what will it be later!
+
+     "With fond love, your
+
+                                             "MARIE."
+
+                    .............................
+
+                                             "December.
+
+     "All Paris has returned once more, my dear mother, and for fifteen
+     days I have been occupied with visits.  The men here do not usually
+     visit; but my husband is obliged to present me for the first time to
+     the persons I ought to know.  He accompanies me there, which is much
+     more agreeable to me than to him, I believe.
+
+     "He is more serious than usual.  Is not this the only form in which
+     amiable men show their bad humor?  The people we visit look on me
+     with a certain interest.  The woman whom this great lord has honored
+     with his choice is evidently an object of great curiosity.  This
+     flatters and intimidates me; I blush and feel constrained; I appear
+     awkward.  When they find me awkward and insignificant, they stare.
+     They believe he married me for my fortune: then I wish to cry.  We
+     reenter the carriage, he smiles upon me, and I am in heaven!  Such
+     are our visits.
+
+     "You must know, my mother, that to me Madame Campvallon is divine.
+     She often takes me to her box at the Italiens, as mine will not be
+     vacant until January.  Yesterday she gave a little fete for me in
+     her beautiful salon: the General opened the ball with me.
+
+     "Oh! my mother, what a wonderfully clever man the General is!  And I
+     admire him because he admires you!
+
+     "The Marquise presented to me all the best dancers.  They were young
+     gentlemen, with their necks so uncovered it almost gave me a chill.
+     I never before had seen men bare-necked and the fashion is not
+     becoming.  It was very evident, however, that they considered
+     themselves indispensable and charming.  Their deportment was
+     insolent and self-sufficient; their eyes were disdainful and all-
+     conquering.
+
+     "Their mouths ever open to breathe freer, their coat-tails flapping
+     like wings, they take one by the waist--as one takes his own
+     property.  Informing you by a look that they are about to do you the
+     honor of removing you, they whirl you away; then, panting for
+     breath, inform you by another look that they will do themselves the
+     pleasure of stopping--and they stop.  Then they rest a moment,
+     panting, laughing, showing their teeth; another look--and they
+     repeat the same performance.  They are wonderful!
+
+     "Louis waltzed with me and seemed satisfied.  I saw him for the
+     first time waltz with the Marquise.  Oh, my mother, it was the dance
+     of the stars!
+
+     "One thing which struck me this evening, as always, was the manifest
+     idolatry with which the women regard my husband.  This, my tender
+     mother, terrifies me.  Why--I ask myself--why did he choose me?
+     How can I please him?  How can I succeed?
+
+     "Behold the result of all my meditations!  A folly perhaps, but of
+     which the effect is to reassure me:
+
+     "Portrait of the Comtesse de Camors, drawn by herself.
+
+     "The Comtesse de Camors, formerly Marie de Tecle, is a personage
+     who, having reached her twentieth year, looks older.  She is not
+     beautiful, as her husband is the first person to confess.  He says
+     she is pretty; but she doubts even this.  Let us see.  She has very
+     long limbs, a fault which she shares with Diana, the Huntress, and
+     which probably gives to the gait of the Countess a lightness it
+     might not otherwise possess.  Her body is naturally short, and on
+     horseback appears to best advantage.  She is plump without being
+     gross.
+
+     "Her features are irregular; the mouth being too large and the lips
+     too thick, with--alas!  the shade of a moustache; white teeth, a
+     little too small; a commonplace nose, a slightly pug; and her
+     mother's eyes--her best feature.  She has the eyebrows of her Uncle
+     Des Rameures, which gives an air of severity to the face and
+     neutralizes the good-natured expression-a reflex from the softness
+     of her heart.
+
+     "She has the dark complexion of her mother, which is more becoming
+     to her mother than to her.  Add to all this, blue-black hair in
+     great silky masses.  On the whole, one knows not what to pronounce
+     her.
+
+     "There, my mother, is my portrait!  Intended to reassure me, it has
+     hardly done so; for it seems to me to be that of an ugly little
+     woman!
+
+     "I wish to be the most lively of women; I wish to be one of the most
+     distinguished.  I wish to be one of the most captivating!  But, oh,
+     my mother!  if I please him I am still more enchanted!  On the
+     whole, thank God!  he finds me perhaps much better than I am: for
+     men have not the same taste in these matters that we have.
+
+     "But what I really can not comprehend, is why he has so little
+     admiration for the Marquise de Campvallon.  His manner is very cold
+     to her.  Were I a man, I should be wildly in love with that superb
+     woman!  Good-night, most beloved of mothers!
+
+                    ..........................
+
+                                                  "January.
+
+     "You complain of me, my cherished one!  The tone of my letters
+     wounds you!  You can not comprehend how this matter of my personal
+     appearance haunts me.  I scrutinize it; I compare it with that of
+     others.  There is something of levity in that which hurts you?  You
+     ask how can I think a man attaches himself to these things, while
+     the merits of mind and soul go for nothing?
+
+     "But, my dearest mother, how will these merits of mind and of soul
+     --supposing your daughter to possess them--serve her, unless she
+     possesses the courage or has the opportunity to display them?  And
+     when I summon up the courage, it seems to me the occasion never
+     comes.
+
+     "For I must confess to you that this delicious Paris is not perfect;
+     and I discover, little by little, the spots upon the sun.
+
+     "Paris is the most charming place!  The only pity is that it has
+     inhabitants!  Not but that they are agreeable, for they are only too
+     much so; only they are also very careless, and appear to my view to
+     live and die without reflecting much on what they are doing.  It is
+     not their fault; they have no time.
+
+     "Without leaving Paris, they are incessant travellers, eternally
+     distracted by motion and novelty.  Other travellers, when they have
+     visited some distant corner--forgetting for a while their families,
+     their duties, and their homes--return and settle down again.  But
+     these Parisians never do.  Their life is an endless voyage; they
+     have no home.  That which elsewhere is the great aim of life is
+     secondary here.  One has here, as elsewhere, an establishment--a
+     house, a private chamber.  One must have.  Here one is wife or
+     mother, husband or father, just as elsewhere; but, my poor mother,
+     they are these things just as little as possible.  The whole
+     interest centres not in the homes; but in the streets, the museums,
+     the salons, the theatres, and the clubs.  It radiates to the immense
+     outside life, which in all its forms night and day agitates Paris,
+     attracts, excites, and enervates you; steals your time, your mind,
+     your soul--and devours them all!
+
+     "Paris is the most delicious of places to visit--the worst of places
+     to live in.
+
+     "Understand well, my mother, that in seeking by what qualifies I can
+     best attract my husband--who is the best of men, doubtless, but of
+     Parisian men nevertheless--I have continually reflected on merits
+     which may be seen at once, which do not require time to be
+     appreciated.
+
+     "Finally, I do not deny that all this is miserable cynicism,
+     unworthy of you and of myself; for you know I am not at heart a bad
+     little woman.  Certainly, if I could keep Monsieur de Camors for a
+     year or two at an old chateau in the midst of a solitary wood, I
+     should like it much.  I could then see him more frequently, I could
+     then become familiar with his august person, and could develop my
+     little talents under his charmed eyes.  But then this might weary
+     him and would be too easy.  Life and happiness, I know, are not so
+     easily managed.  All is difficulty, peril, and conflict.
+
+     "What joy, then, to conquer!  And I swear to you, my mother, that I
+     will conquer!  I will force him to know me as you know me; to love
+     me, not as he now does, but as you do, for many good reasons of
+     which he does not yet dream.
+
+     "Not that he believes me absolutely a fool; I think he has abandoned
+     that idea for at least two days past.
+
+     "How he came thus to think, my next letter shall explain.
+
+                                   "Your own
+                                                  "MARIE."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE REPTILE STRIVES TO CLIMB
+
+                                                  "March.
+
+     "You will remember, my mother, that the Count has as secretary a man
+     named Vautrot.  The name is a bad one; but the man himself is a good
+     enough creature, except that I somewhat dislike his catlike style of
+     looking at one.
+
+     "Well, Monsieur de Vautrot lives in the house with us.  He comes
+     early in the morning, breakfasts at some neighboring cafe, passes
+     the day in the Count's study, and often remains to dine with us, if
+     he has work to finish in the evening.
+
+     "He is an educated man, and knows a little of everything; and he has
+     undertaken many occupations before he accepted the subordinate
+     though lucrative post he now occupies with my husband.  He loves
+     literature; but not that of his time and of his country, perhaps
+     because he himself has failed in this.  He prefers foreign writers
+     and poets, whom he quotes with some taste, though with too much
+     declamation.
+
+     "Most probably his early education was defective; for on all
+     occasions, when speaking with us, he says, 'Yes, Monsieur le Comte!'
+     or 'Certainly, Madame la Comtesse!' as if he were a servant.  Yet
+     withal, he has a peculiar pride, or perhaps I should say
+     insufferable vanity.  But his great fault, in my eyes, is the
+     scoffing tone he adopts, when the subject is religion or morals.
+
+     "Two days ago, while we were dining, Vautrot allowed himself to
+     indulge in a rather violent tirade of this description.  It was
+     certainly contrary to all good taste.
+
+     "'My dear Vautrot,' my husband said quietly to him, 'to me these
+     pleasantries of yours are indifferent; but pray remember, that while
+     you are a strong-minded man, my wife is a weak-minded woman; and
+     strength, you know, should respect weakness.'
+
+     "Monsieur Vautrot first grew white, then red, and finally green.  He
+     rose, bowed awkwardly, and immediately afterward left the table.
+     Since that time I have remarked his manner has been more reserved.
+     The moment I was alone with Louis, I said:
+
+     "'You may think me indiscreet, but pray let me ask you a question.
+     How can you confide all your affairs and all your secrets to a man
+     who professes to have no principles?'
+
+     "Monsieur de Camors laughed.
+
+     "'Oh, he talks thus out of bravado,' he answered.  'He thinks to
+     make himself more interesting in your eyes by these Mephistophelian
+     airs.  At bottom he is a good fellow.'
+
+     "'But,' I answered, 'he has faith in nothing.'
+
+     "'Not in much, I believe.  Yet he has never deceived me.  He is an
+     honorable man.'
+
+     "I opened my eyes wide at this.
+
+     "'Well,' he said, with an amused look, 'what is the matter, Miss
+     Mary?'
+
+     "'What is this honor you speak of?'
+
+     "'Let me ask your definition of it, Miss Mary,' he replied.
+
+     "'Mon Dieu!' I cried, blushing deeply, 'I know but little of it, but
+     it seems to me that honor separated from morality is no great thing;
+     and morality without religion is nothing.  They all constitute a
+     chain.  Honor hangs to the last link, like a flower; but if the
+     chain be broken, honor falls with the rest.' He looked at me with
+     strange eyes, as if he were not only confounded but disquieted by my
+     philosophy.  Then he gave a deep sigh, and rising said:
+
+     "'Very neat, that definition-very neat.'
+
+     "That night, at the opera, he plied me with bonbons and orange ices.
+     Madame de Campvallon accompanied us; and at parting, I begged her to
+     call for me next day on her way to the Bois, for she is my idol.
+     She is so lovely and so distinguished--and she I knows it well.  I
+     love to be with her.  On our return home, Louis remained silent,
+     contrary to his custom.  Suddenly he said, brusquely:
+
+     "'Marie, do you go with the Marquise to the Bois to-morrow?'
+
+     "'Yes.'
+
+     "'But you see her often, it seems to me-morning and evening.  You
+     are always with her.'
+
+     "'Heavens!  I do it to be agreeable to you.  Is not Madame de
+     Campvallon a good associate?'
+
+     "'Excellent; only in general I do not admire female friendships.
+     But I did wrong to speak to you on this subject.  You have wit and
+     discretion enough to preserve the proper limits.'
+
+     "This, my mother, was what he said to me.  I embrace you.
+
+                                   Ever your
+                                                  "MARIE."
+
+                    ............................
+
+                                                  "March.
+
+     "I hope, my own mother, not to bore you this year with a catalogue
+     of fetes and festivals, lamps and girandoles; for Lent is coming.
+     To-day is Ash-Wednesday.  Well, we dance to-morrow evening at Madame
+     d'Oilly's.  I had hoped not to go, but I saw Louis was disappointed,
+     and I feared to offend Madame d'Oilly, who has acted a mother's part
+     to my husband.  Lent here is only an empty name.  I sigh to myself:
+     'Will they never stop!  Great heavens!  will they never cease
+     amusing themselves?'
+
+     "I must confess to you, my darling mother, I amuse myself too much
+     to be happy.  I depended on Lent for some time to myself, and see
+     how they efface the calendar!
+
+     "This dear Lent!  What a sweet, honest, pious invention it is,
+     notwithstanding.  How sensible is our religion!  How well it
+     understands human weakness and folly!  How far-seeing in its
+     regulations!  How indulgent also!  for to limit pleasure is to
+     pardon it.
+
+     "I also love pleasure--the beautiful toilets that make us resemble
+     flowers, the lighted salons, the music, the gay voices and the
+     dance.  Yes, I love all these things; I experience their charming
+     confusion; I palpitate, I inhale their intoxication.  But always--
+     always! at Paris in the winter--at the springs in summer--ever this
+     crowd, ever this whirl, this intoxication of pleasure!  All become
+     like savages, like negroes, and--dare I say so?--bestial! Alas for
+     Lent!
+
+     "HE foresaw it.  HE told us, as the priest told me this morning:
+     'Remember you have a soul: Remember you have duties!--a husband
+     --a child--a mother--a God!'
+
+     "Then, my mother, we should retire within ourselves; should pass the
+     time in grave thought between the church and our homes; should
+     converse on solemn and serious subjects; and should dwell in the
+     moral world to gain a foothold in heaven!  This season is intended
+     as a wholesome interval to prevent our running frivolity into
+     dissipation, and pleasure into convulsion; to prevent our winter's
+     mask from becoming our permanent visage.  This is entirely the
+     opinion of Madame Jaubert.
+
+     "Who is this Madame Jaubert?  you will ask.  She is a little
+     Parisian angel whom my mother would dearly love!  I met her almost
+     everywhere--but chiefly at St. Phillipe de Roule--for several months
+     without being aware that she is our neighbor, that her hotel adjoins
+     ours.  Such is Paris!
+
+     "She is a graceful person, with a soft and tender, but decided air.
+     We sat near each other at church; we gave each other side-glances;
+     we pushed our chairs to let each other pass; and in our softest
+     voices would say, 'Excuse me, Madame!' 'Oh, Madame!' My glove would
+     fall, she would pick it up; I would offer her the holy water, and
+     receive a sweet smile, with 'Dear Madame!' Once at a concert at the
+     Tuileries we observed each other at a distance, and smiled
+     recognition; when any part of the music pleased us particularly we
+     glanced smilingly at each other.  Judge of my surprise next morning
+     when I saw my affinity enter the little Italian house next ours--and
+     enter it, too, as if it were her home.  On inquiry I found she was
+     Madame Jaubert, the wife of a tall, fair young man who is a civil
+     engineer.
+
+     "I was seized with a desire to call upon my neighbor.  I spoke of it
+     to Louis, blushing slightly, for I remembered he did not approve of
+     intimacies between women.  But above all, he loves me!
+
+     "Notwithstanding he slightly shrugged his shoulders--'Permit me at
+     least, Miss Mary, to make some inquiries about these people.'
+
+     "A few days afterward he had made them, for he said: 'Miss Mary, you
+     may visit Madame Jaubert; she is a perfectly proper person.'
+
+     "I first flew to my husband's neck, and thence went to call upon
+     Madame Jaubert.
+
+     "'It is I, Madame!'
+
+     "'Oh, Madame, permit me!'
+
+     "And we embraced each other and were good friends immediately.
+
+     "Her husband is a civil engineer, as I have said.  He was once
+     occupied with great inventions and with great industrial works; but
+     that was only for a short time.  Having inherited a large estate, he
+     abandoned his studies and did nothing--at least nothing but
+     mischief.  When he married to increase his fortune, his pretty
+     little wife had a sad surprise.  He was never seen at home; always
+     at the club--always behind the scenes at the opera--always going to
+     the devil!  He gambled, he had mistresses and shameful affairs.  But
+     worse than all, he drank--he came to his wife drunk.  One incident,
+     which my pen almost refuses to write, will give you an idea.  Think
+     of it!  He conceived the idea of sleeping in his boots!  There, my
+     mother, is the pretty fellow my sweet little friend transformed,
+     little by little, into a decent man, a man of merit, and an
+     excellent husband!
+
+     "And she did it all by gentleness, firmness, and sagacity.  Now is
+     not this encouraging?--for, God knows, my task is less difficult.
+
+     "Their household charms me; for it proves that one may build for
+     one's self, even in the midst of this Paris, a little nest such as
+     one dreams of.  These dear neighbors are inhabitants of Paris--not
+     its prey.  They have their fireside; they own it, and it belongs to
+     them.  Paris is at their door--so much the better.  They have ever a
+     relish for refined amusement; 'they drink at the fountain,' but do
+     not drown themselves in it.  Their habits are the same, passing
+     their evenings in conversation, reading, or music; stirring the fire
+     and listening to the wind and rain without, as if they were in a
+     forest.
+
+     "Life slips gently through their fingers, thread by thread, as in
+     our dear old country evenings.
+
+     "My mother, they are happy!
+
+     "Here, then, is my dream--here is my plan.
+
+     "My husband has no vices, as Monsieur Jaubert had.  He has only the
+     habits of all the brilliant men of his Paris-world.  It is
+     necessary, my own mother, gradually to reform him; to suggest
+     insensibly to him the new idea that one may pass one evening at home
+     in company with a beloved and loving wife, without dying suddenly of
+     consumption.
+
+     "The rest will follow.
+
+     "What is this rest?  It is the taste for a quiet life, for the
+     serious sweetness of the domestic hearth--the family taste--the idea
+     of seclusion--the recovered soul!
+
+     "Is it not so, my good angel?  Then trust me.  I am more than ever
+     full of ardor, courage, and confidence.  For he loves me with all
+     his heart, with more levity, perhaps, than I deserve; but still--he
+     loves me!
+
+     "He loves me; he spoils me; he heaps presents upon me.  There is no
+     pleasure he does not offer me, except, be it understood, the
+     pleasure of passing one evening at home together.
+
+     "But he loves me!  That is the great point--he loves me!
+
+     "Now, dearest mother, let me whisper one final word-a word that
+     makes me laugh and cry at the same time.  It seems to me that for
+     some time past I have had two hearts--a large one of my own, and--
+     another--smaller!
+
+     "Oh, my mother!  I see you in tears.  But it is a great mystery
+     this.  It is a dream of heaven; but perhaps only a dream, which I
+     have not yet told even to my husband--only to my adorable mother!
+     Do not weep, for it is not yet quite certain.
+
+                              "Your naughty
+                                             Miss MARY."
+
+
+In reply to this letter Madame de Camors received one three mornings
+after, announcing to her the death of her grandfather.  The Comte de
+Tecle had died of apoplexy, of which his state of health had long given
+warning.  Madame de Tecle foresaw that the first impulse of her daughter
+would be to join her to share her sad bereavement.  She advised her
+strongly against undertaking the fatigue of the journey, and promised to
+visit her in Paris, as soon as she conveniently could.  The mourning in
+the family heightened in the heart of the Countess the uneasy feeling and
+vague sadness her last letters had indicated.
+
+She was much less happy than she told her mother; for the first
+enthusiasm and first illusions of marriage could not long deceive a
+spirit so quick and acute as hers.
+
+A young girl who marries is easily deceived by the show of an affection
+of which she is the object.  It is rare that she does not adore her
+husband and believe she is adored by him, simply because he has married
+her.
+
+The young heart opens spontaneously and diffuses its delicate perfume of
+love and its songs of tenderness; and enveloped in this heavenly cloud
+all seems love around it.  But, little by little, it frees itself; and,
+too often, recognizes that this delicious harmony and intoxicating
+atmosphere which charmed it came only from itself.
+
+Thus was it with the Countess; so far as the pen can render the shadows
+of a feminine soul.  Such were the impressions which, day by day,
+penetrated the very soul of our poor "Miss Mary."
+
+It was nothing more than this; but this was everything to her!
+
+The idea of being betrayed by her husband--and that, too, with cruel
+premeditation--never had arisen to torture her soul.  But, beyond those
+delicate attentions to her which she never exaggerated in her letters to
+her mother, she felt herself disdained and slighted.  Marriage had not
+changed Camors's habits: he dined at home, instead of at his club, that
+was all.  She believed herself loved, however, but with a lightness that
+was almost offensive.  Yet, though she was sometimes sad and nearly in
+tears, she did not despair; this valiant little heart attached itself
+with intrepid confidence to all the happy chances the future might have
+in store for it.
+
+M. de Camors continued very indifferent--as one may readily comprehend--
+to the agitation which tormented this young heart, but which never
+occurred to him for a moment.  For himself, strange as it may appear,
+he was happy enough.  This marriage had been a painful step to take;
+but, once confirmed in his sin, he became reconciled to it.  But his
+conscience, seared as it was, had some living fibres in it; and he would
+not have failed in the duty he thought he owed to his wife.  These
+sentiments were composed of a sort of indifference, blended with pity.
+He was vaguely sorry for this child, whose existence was absorbed and
+destroyed between those of two beings of nature superior to her own;
+and he hoped she would always remain ignorant of the fate to which she
+was condemned.  He resolved never to neglect anything that might
+extenuate its rigor; but he belonged, nevertheless, more than ever solely
+to the passion which was the supreme crime of his life.  For his intrigue
+with Madame de Campvallon, continually excited by mystery and danger--and
+conducted with profound address by a woman whose cunning was equal to her
+beauty--continued as strong, after years of enjoyment, as at first.
+
+The gracious courtesy of M. de Camors, on which he piqued himself, as
+regarded his wife, had its limits; as the young Countess perceived
+whenever she attempted to abuse it.  Thus, on several occasions she
+declined receiving guests on the ground of indisposition, hoping her
+husband would not abandon her to her solitude.  She was in error.
+
+The Count gave her in reality, under these circumstances, a tete-a-tete
+of a few minutes after dinner; but near nine o'clock he would leave her
+with perfect tranquillity.  Perhaps an hour later she would receive a
+little packet of bonbons, or a pretty basket of choice fruit, that would
+permit her to pass the evening as she might.  These little gifts she
+sometimes divided with her neighbor, Madame Jaubert; sometimes with
+M. de Vautrot, secretary to her husband.
+
+This M. de Vautrot, for whom she had at first conceived an aversion, was
+gradually getting into her good graces.  In the absence of her husband
+she always found him at hand; and referred to him for many little
+details, such as addresses, invitations, the selection of books and the
+purchase of furniture.  From this came a certain familiarity; she began
+to call him Vautrot, or "My good Vautrot," while he zealously performed
+all her little commissions.  He manifested for her a great deal of
+respectful attention, and even refrained from indulging in the sceptical
+sneers which he knew displeased her.  Happy to witness this reform and to
+testify her gratitude, she invited him to remain on two or three evenings
+when he came to take his leave, and talked with him of books and the
+theatres.
+
+When her mourning kept her at home, M. de Camors passed the two first
+evenings with her until ten o'clock.  But this effort fatigued him, and
+the poor young woman, who had already erected an edifice for the future
+on this frail basis, had the mortification of observing that on the third
+evening he had resumed his bachelor habits.
+
+This was a great blow to her, and her sadness became greater than it had
+been up to that time; so much so in fact, that solitude was almost
+unbearable.  She had hardly been long enough in Paris to form intimacies.
+Madame Jaubert came to her friend as often as she could; but in the
+intervals the Countess adopted the habit of retaining Vautrot, or even of
+sending for him.  Camors himself, three fourths of the time, would bring
+him in before going out in the evening.
+
+"I bring you Vautrot, my dear," he would say, "and Shakespeare.  You can
+read him together."
+
+Vautrot read well; and though his heavy declamatory style frequently
+annoyed the Countess, she thus managed to kill many a long evening, while
+waiting the expected visit of Madame de Tecle.  But Vautrot, whenever he
+looked at her, wore such a sympathetic air and seemed so mortified when
+she did not invite him to stay, that, even when wearied of him, she
+frequently did so.
+
+About the end of the month of April, M. Vautrot was alone with the
+Countess de Camors about ten o'clock in the evening.  They were reading
+Goethe's Faust, which she had never before heard.  This reading seemed to
+interest the young woman more than usual, and with her eyes fixed on the
+reader, she listened to it with rapt attention.  She was not alone
+fascinated by the work, but--as is frequently the case-she traced her own
+thoughts and her own history in the fiction of the poet.
+
+We all know with what strange clairvoyance a mind possessed with a fixed
+idea discovers resemblances and allusions in accidental description.
+Madame de Camors perceived without doubt some remote connection between
+her husband and Faust--between herself and Marguerite; for she could not
+help showing that she was strangely agitated.  She could not restrain the
+violence of her emotion, when Marguerite in prison cries out, in her
+agony and madness:
+
+                               Marguerite.
+
+Who has given you, headsman, this power over me?  You come to me while it
+is yet midnight.  Be merciful and let me live.
+
+Is not to-morrow morning soon enough?
+
+I am yet so young--so young!  and am to die already!  I was fair, too;
+that was my undoing.  My true love was near, now he is far away.
+
+Torn lies my garland; scattered the flowers.  Don't take hold of me so
+roughly!  spare me!  spare me.  What have I done to you?  Let me not
+implore you in vain!  I never saw you before in all my life; you know.
+
+
+                                  Faust.
+
+Can I endure this misery?
+
+
+                               Marguerite.
+
+I am now entirely in thy power.  Only let me give suck to the child.
+I pressed it this whole night to my heart.  They took it away to vex me,
+and now say I killed it, and I shall never be happy again.  They sing
+songs upon me!  It is wicked of the people.  An old tale ends so--who
+bids them apply it?
+
+
+                                  Faust.
+
+A lover lies at thy feet, to unloose the bonds of wickedness.
+
+
+What a blending of confused sentiments, of powerful sympathies, of vague
+apprehensions, suddenly seized on the breast of the young Countess!  One
+can hardly imagine their force--to the very verge of distracting her.
+She turned on her fauteuil and closed her beautiful eyes, as if to keep
+back the tears which rolled under the fringe of the long lashes.
+
+At this moment Vautrot ceased to read, dropped his book, sighed
+profoundly, and stared a moment.
+
+Then he knelt at the feet of the Comtesse de Camors!  He took her hand;
+he said, with a tragic sigh, "Poor angel!"
+
+It will be difficult to understand this incident and the unfortunately
+grave results that followed it, without having the moral and physical
+portrait of its principal actor.
+
+M. Hippolyte Vautrot was a handsome man and knew it perfectly.  He even
+flattered himself on a certain resemblance to his patron, the Comte de
+Camors.  Partly from nature and partly from continual imitation, this
+idea had some foundation; for he resembled the Count as much as a vulgar
+man can resemble one of the highest polish.
+
+He was the son of a small confectioner in the provinces; had received
+from his father an honestly acquired fortune, and had dissipated it in
+the varied enterprises of his adventurous life.  The influence of his
+college, however, obtained for him a place in the Seminary.  He left it
+to come to Paris and study law; placed himself with an attorney;
+attempted literature without success; gambled on the Bourse and lost
+there.
+
+He had successively knocked with feverish hand at all the doors of
+Fortune, and none had opened to him, because, though his ambition was
+great, his capacity was limited.  Subordinate positions, for which alone
+he was fit, he did not want.  He would have made a good tutor: he sighed
+to be a poet.  He would have been a respectable cure in the country: he
+pined to be a bishop.  Fitted for an excellent secretary, he aspired to
+be a minister.  In fine, he wished to be a great man, and consequently
+was a failure as a little one.
+
+But he made himself a hypocrite; and that he found much easier.  He
+supported himself on the one hand by the philosophic society to be met at
+Madame d'Oilly's; on the other, by the orthodox reunions of Madame de la
+Roche-Jugan.
+
+By these influences he contrived to secure the secretaryship to the Comte
+de Camors, who, in his general contempt of the human species, judged
+Vautrot to be as good as any other.  Now, familiarity with M. de Camors
+was, morally, fearfully prejudicial to the secretary.  It had, it is
+true, the effect of stripping off his devout mask, which he seldom put on
+before his patron; but it terribly increased in venom the depravity which
+disappointment and wounded pride had secreted in his ulcerated heart.
+
+Of course no one will imagine that M. de Camors had the bad taste to
+undertake deliberately the demoralization of his secretary; but contact,
+intimacy, and example sufficed fully to do this.  A secretary is always
+more or less a confidant.  He divines that which is not revealed to him;
+and Vautrot could not be long in discovering that his patron's success
+did not arise, morally, from too much principle--in politics, from excess
+of conviction--in business, from a mania for scruples!  The intellectual
+superiority of Camors, refined and insolent as it was, aided to blind
+Vautrot, showing him evil which was not only prosperous, but was also
+radiant in grace and prestige.  For these reasons he most profoundly
+admired his master--admired, imitated, and execrated him!
+
+Camors professed for him and for his solemn airs an utter contempt, which
+he did not always take the trouble to conceal; and Vautrot trembled when
+some burning sarcasm fell from such a height on the old wound of his
+vanity--that wound which was ever sore within him.  What he hated most in
+Camors was his easy and insolent triumph--his rapid and unmerited
+fortune--all those enjoyments which life yielded him without pain,
+without toil, without conscience--peacefully tasted!  But what he hated
+above all, was that this man had thus obtained these things while he had
+vainly striven for them.
+
+Assuredly, in this Vautrot was not an exception.  The same example
+presented to a healthier mind would not have been much more salutary,
+for we must tell those who, like M. de Camors, trample under foot all
+principles of right, and nevertheless imagine that their secretaries,
+their servants, their wives and their children, may remain virtuous--
+we must tell these that while they wrong others they deceive themselves!
+And this was the case with Hippolyte Vautrot.
+
+He was about forty years of age--a period of life when men often become
+very vicious, even when they have been passably virtuous up to that time.
+He affected an austere and puritanical air; was the great man of the cafe
+he frequented; and there passed judgment on his contemporaries and
+pronounced them all inferior.  He was difficult to please--in point of
+virtue demanding heroism; in talent, genius; in art, perfection.
+
+His political opinions were those of Erostratus, with this difference--
+always in favor of the ancient--that Vautrot, after setting fire to the
+temple, would have robbed it also.  In short, he was a fool, but a
+vicious fool as well.
+
+If M. de Camors, at the moment of leaving his luxurious study that
+evening, had had the bad taste to turn and apply his eye to the keyhole,
+he would have seen something greatly to astonish even him.
+
+He would have seen this "honorable man" approach a beautiful Italian
+cabinet inlaid with ivory, turn over the papers in the drawers, and
+finally open in the most natural manner a very complicated lock, the
+key of which the Count at that moment had in his pocket.
+
+It was after this search that M. Vautrot repaired with his volume of
+Faust to the boudoir of the young Countess, at whose feet we have already
+left him too long.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+LIGHTNING FROM A CLEAR SKY
+
+Madame de Camors had closed her eyes to conceal her tears.  She opened
+them at the instant Vautrot seized her hand and called her "Poor angel!"
+
+Seeing the man on his knees, she could not comprehend it, and only
+exclaimed, simply:
+
+"Are you mad, Vautrot?"
+
+"Yes, I am mad!"  Vautrot threw his hair back with a romantic gesture
+common to him, and, as he believed, to the poets-"Yes, I am mad with love
+and with pity, for I see your sufferings, pure and noble victim!"
+
+The Countess only stared in blank astonishment.
+
+"Repose yourself with confidence," he continued, "on a heart that will be
+devoted to you until death--a heart into which your tears now penetrate
+to its most sacred depths!"
+
+The Countess did not wish her tears to penetrate to such a distance, so
+she dried them.
+
+A man on his knees before a woman he adores must appear to her either
+sublime or ridiculous.  Unfortunately, the attitude of Vautrot, at once
+theatrical and awkward, did not seem sublime to the Countess.  To her
+lively imagination it was irresistibly ludicrous.  A bright gleam of
+amusement illumined her charming countenance; she bit her lip to conceal
+it, but it shone out of her eyes nevertheless.
+
+A man never should kneel unless sure of rising a conqueror.  Otherwise,
+like Vautrot, he exposes himself to be laughed at.
+
+"Rise, my good Vautrot," the Countess said, gravely.  "This book has
+evidently bewildered you.  Go and take some rest and we will forget this;
+only you must never forget yourself again in this manner."
+
+Vautrot rose.  He was livid.
+
+"Madame la Comtesse," he said, bitterly, "the love of a great heart never
+can be an offence.  Mine at least would have been sincere; mine would
+have been faithful: mine would not have been an infamous snare!"
+
+The emphasis of these words displayed so evident an intention, the
+countenance of the young woman changed immediately.  She moved uneasily
+on her fauteuil.
+
+"What do you mean, Monsieur Vautrot?"
+
+"Nothing, Madame, which you do not know, I think," he replied, meaningly.
+
+She rose.
+
+"You shall explain your meaning immediately to me, Monsieur!"  she
+exclaimed; "or later, to my husband."
+
+"But your sadness, your tears," cried the secretary, in a tone of
+admirable sincerity--"these made me sure you were not ignorant of it!"
+
+"Of what?  You hesitate!  Speak, man!"
+
+"I am not a wretch!  I love you and pity you!--that is all;" and Vautrot
+sighed deeply.
+
+"And why do you pity me?"  She spoke haughtily; and though Vautrot had
+never suspected this imperiousness of manner or of language, he reflected
+hurriedly on the point at which he had arrived.  More sure than ever of
+success, after a moment he took from his pocket a folded letter.  It was
+one with which he had provided himself to confirm the suspicions of the
+Countess, now awakened for the first time.
+
+In profound silence he unfolded and handed it to her.  She hesitated a
+moment, then seized it.  A single glance recognized the writing, for she
+had often exchanged notes with the Marquise de Campvallon.
+
+Words of the most burning passion terminated thus:
+
+"--Always a little jealous of Mary; half vexed at having given her to
+you.  For--she is pretty and--but I!  I am beautiful, am I not, my
+beloved?--and, above all, I adore you!"
+
+At the first word the Countess became fearfully pale.  Finishing, she
+uttered a deep groan; then she reread the letter and returned it to
+Vautrot, as if unconscious of what she was doing.
+
+For a few seconds she remained motionless--petrified--her eyes fixed on
+vacancy.  A world seemed rolling down and crushing her heart.
+
+Suddenly she turned, passed with rapid steps into her boudoir; and
+Vautrot heard the sound of opening and shutting drawers.  A moment after
+she reappeared with bonnet and cloak, and crossed the boudoir with the
+same strong and rapid step.
+
+Vautrot, greatly terrified, rushed to stop her.
+
+"Madame!"  he cried, throwing himself before her.
+
+She waved him aside with an imperious gesture of her hand; he trembled
+and obeyed, and she left the boudoir.  A moment later she was in the
+Avenue des Champs Elysees, going toward Paris.
+
+It was now near midnight; cold, damp April weather, with the rain falling
+in great drops.  The few pedestrians still on the broad pavement turned
+to follow with their eyes this majestic young woman, whose gait seemed
+hastened by some errand of life or death.
+
+But in Paris nothing is surprising, for people witness all manner of
+things there.  Therefore the strange appearance of Madame de Camors did
+not excite any extraordinary attention.  A few men smiled and nodded;
+others threw a few words of raillery at her--both were unheeded alike.
+She traversed the Place de la Concorde with the same convulsive haste,
+and passed toward the bridge.  Arriving on it, the sound of the swollen
+Seine rushing under the arches and against the pillars, caught her ear;
+she stopped, leaned against the parapet, and gazed into the angry water;
+then bowing her head she uttered a deep sigh, and resumed her rapid walk.
+
+In the Rue Vanneau she stopped before a brilliantly lighted mansion,
+isolated from the adjoining houses by a garden wall.  It was the dwelling
+of the Marquise de Campvallon: Arrived there, the unfortunate child knew
+not what to do, nor even why she had come.  She had some vague design of
+assuring herself palpably of her misfortune; to touch it with her finger;
+or perhaps to find some reason, some pretext to doubt it.
+
+She dropped down on a stone bench against the garden wall, and hid her
+face in both her hands, vainly striving to think.  It was past midnight.
+The streets were deserted: a shower of rain was falling over Paris, and
+she was chilled to numbness.
+
+A sergent-de-ville passed, enveloped in his cape.  He turned and stared
+at the young woman; then took her roughly by the arm.
+
+"What are you doing here?"  he said, brutally.
+
+She looked up at him with wondering eyes.
+
+"I do not know myself," she answered.
+
+The man looked more closely at her, discovered through all her confusion
+a nameless refinement and the subtle perfume of purity.  He took pity on
+her.
+
+"But, Madame, you can not stay here," he rejoined in a softer voice.
+
+"No?"
+
+"You must have some great sorrow?"
+
+"Very great."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"The Comtesse de Camors," she said, simply.
+
+The man looked bewildered.
+
+"Will you tell me where you live, Madame?"
+
+She gave the address with perfect simplicity and perfect indifference.
+She seemed to be thinking nothing of what she was saying.  The man took a
+few steps, then stopped and listened to the sound of wheels approaching.
+The carriage was empty.  He stopped it, opened the door, and requested
+the Countess to get in.  She did so quietly, and he placed himself beside
+the driver.
+
+The Comte de Camors had just reached his house and heard with surprise,
+from the lips of his wife's maid, the details of the Countess's
+mysterious disappearance, when the bell rang violently.
+
+He rushed out and met his wife on the stairs.  She had somewhat recovered
+her calmness on the road, and as he interrogated her with a searching
+glance, she made a ghastly effort to smile.
+
+"I was slightly ill and went out a little," she said.  "I do not know the
+streets and lost my way."
+
+Notwithstanding the improbability of the explanation, he did not
+hesitate.  He murmured a few soft words of reproach and placed her in the
+hands of her maid, who removed her wet garments.
+
+During that time he called the sergent-de-ville, who remained in the
+vestibule, and closely interrogated him.  On learning in what street and
+what precise spot he had found the Countess, her husband knew at once and
+fully the whole truth.
+
+He went directly to his wife.  She had retired and was trembling in every
+limb.  One of her hands was resting outside the coverlet.  He rushed to
+take it, but she withdrew it gently, with sad and resolute dignity.
+
+The simple gesture told him they were separated forever.
+
+By a tacit agreement, arranged by her and as tacitly accepted by him,
+Madame de Camors became virtually a widow.
+
+He remained for some seconds immovable, his expression lost in the shadow
+of the bed-hangings; then walked slowly across the chamber.  The idea of
+lying to defend himself never occurred to him.
+
+His line of conduct was already arranged--calmly, methodically.  But two
+blue circles had sunk around his eyes, and his face wore a waxen pallor.
+His hands, joined behind his back, were clenched; and the ring he wore
+sparkled with their tremulous movement.  At intervals he seemed to cease
+breathing, as he listened to the chattering teeth of his young wife.
+
+After half an hour he approached the bed.
+
+"Marie!"  he said in a low voice.  She turned upon him her eyes gleaming
+with fever.
+
+"Marie, I am ignorant of what you know, and I shall not ask," he
+continued.  "I have been very criminal toward you, but perhaps less so
+than you think.  Terrible circumstances bound me with iron bands.  Fate
+ruled me!  But I seek no palliation.  Judge me as severely as you wish;
+but I beg of you to calm yourself--preserve yourself!  You spoke to me
+this morning of your presentiments--of your maternal hopes.  Attach
+yourself to those thoughts, and you will always be mistress of your life.
+As for myself, I shall be whatever you will--a stranger or a friend.  But
+now I feel that my presence makes you ill.  I would leave you for the
+present, but not alone.  Do you wish Madame Jaubert to come to you
+tonight?"
+
+"Yes!"  she murmured, faintly.
+
+"I shall go for her; but it is not necessary to tell you that there are
+confidences one must reserve even from one's dearest friends."
+
+"Except a mother?"  She murmured the question with a supplicating agony
+very painful to see.
+
+He grew still paler.  After an instant, "Except a mother!"  he said.
+"Be it so!"
+
+She turned her face and buried it in the pillow.
+
+"Your mother arrives to-morrow, does she not?"  She made an affirmative
+motion of her head.  "You can make your arrangements with her.  I shall
+accept everything."
+
+"Thank you," she replied, feebly.
+
+He left the room and went to find Madame Jaubert, whom he awakened, and
+briefly told her that his wife had been seized with a severe nervous
+attack--the effect of a chill.  The amiable little woman ran hastily to
+her friend and spent the night with her.
+
+But she was not the dupe of the explanation Camors had given her.  Women
+quickly understand one another in their grief.  Nevertheless she asked no
+confidences and received none; but her tenderness to her friend
+redoubled.  During the silence of that terrible night, the only service
+she could render her was to make her weep.
+
+Nor did those laggard hours pass less bitterly for M. de Camors.  He
+tried to take no rest, but walked up and down his apartment until
+daylight in a sort of frenzy.  The distress of this poor child wounded
+him to the heart.  The souvenirs of the past rose before him and passed
+in sad procession.  Then the morrow would show him the crushed daughter
+with her mother--and such a mother!  Mortally stricken in all her best
+illusions, in all her dearest beliefs, in all connected with the
+happiness of life!
+
+He found that he still had in his heart lively feelings of pity; still
+some remorse in his conscience.
+
+This weakness irritated him, and he denounced it to himself.  Who had
+betrayed him?  This question agitated him to an equal degree; but from
+the first instant he had not been deceived in this matter.
+
+The sudden grief and half-crazed conviction of his wife, her despairing
+attitude and her silence, could only be explained by strong assurance and
+certain revelation.  After turning the matter over and over in his own
+mind, he arrived at the conclusion that nothing could have thrown such
+clear light into his life save the letters of Madame de Campvallon.
+
+He never wrote the Marquise, but could not prevent her writing to him;
+for to her, as to all women, love without letters was incomplete.
+
+But the fault of the Count--inexcusable in a man of his tact--was in
+preserving these letters.  No one, however, is perfect, and he was an
+artist.  He delighted in these the 'chefs-d'oeuvre' of passionate
+eloquence, was proud of inspiring them, and could not make up his mind to
+burn or destroy them.  He examined at once the secret drawer where he had
+concealed them and, by certain signs, discovered the lock had been
+tampered with.  Nevertheless no letter was missing; the arrangement of
+them alone had been disturbed.
+
+His suspicions at once reverted to Vautrot, whose scruples he suspected
+were slight; and in the morning they were confirmed beyond doubt by a
+letter from the secretary.  In fact Vautrot, after passing on his part a
+most wretched night, did not feel his nerves equal in the morning to
+meeting the reception the Count possibly had in waiting for him.  His
+letter was skilfully penned to put suspicion to sleep if it had not been
+fully roused, and if the Countess had not betrayed him.
+
+It announced his acceptance of a lucrative situation suddenly offered him
+in a commercial house in London.  He was obliged to decide at once, and
+to sail that same morning for fear of losing an opportunity which could
+not occur again.  It concluded with expressions of the liveliest
+gratitude and regret.
+
+Camors could not reach his secretary to strangle him; so he resolved to
+pay him.  He not only sent him all arrears of salary, but a large sum in
+addition as a testimonial of his sympathy and good wishes.
+
+This, however, was a simple precaution; for the Count apprehended nothing
+more from the venomous reptile so far beneath him, after he had once
+shaken it off.  Seeing him deprived of the only weapon he could use
+against him, he felt safe.  Besides, he had lost the only interest he
+could desire to subserve, for he knew M. Vautrot had done him the
+compliment of courting his Wife.
+
+And he really esteemed him a little less low, after discovering this
+gentlemanly taste!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ONE GLEAM OF HOPE
+
+It required on the part of M. de Camors, this morning, an exertion of all
+his courage to perform his duty as a gentleman in going to receive Madame
+de Tecle at the station.  But courage had been for some time past his
+sole remaining virtue; and this at least he sought never to lose.  He
+received, then, most gracefully his mother-in-law, robed in her mourning
+attire.  She was surprised at not seeing her daughter with him.  He
+informed her that she had been a little indisposed since the preceding
+evening.  Notwithstanding the precautions he took in his language and by
+his smile, he could not prevent Madame de Tecle from feeling a lively
+alarm.
+
+He did not pretend, however, entirely to reassure her.  Under his
+reserved and measured replies, she felt the presentiment of some
+disaster.  After first pressing him with many questions, she kept silent
+during the rest of the drive.
+
+The young Countess, to spare her mother the first shock, had quitted her
+bed; and the poor child had even put a little rouge on her pale cheeks.
+M. de Camors himself opened for Madame de Tecle the door of her
+daughter's chamber, and then withdrew.
+
+The young woman raised herself with difficulty from her couch, and her
+mother took her in her arms.
+
+All that passed between them at first was a silent interchange of mutual
+caresses.  Then the mother seated herself near her daughter, drew her
+head on her bosom, and looked into the depths of her eyes.
+
+"What is the matter?"  she said, sadly.
+
+"Oh, nothing--nothing hopeless!  only you must love your little Mary more
+than ever.  Will you not?"
+
+"Yes; but why?"
+
+"I must not worry you; and I must not wrong myself either--you know why!"
+
+"Yes; but I implore you, my darling, to tell me."
+
+"Very well; I will tell you everything; but, mother, you must be brave as
+I am."
+
+She buried her head lower still on her mother's breast, and recounted to
+her, in a low voice, without looking up once, the terrible revelation
+which had been made to her, and which her husband's avowal had confirmed.
+
+Madame de Tecle did not once interrupt her during this cruel recital.
+She only imprinted a kiss on her hair from time to time.  The young
+Countess, who did not dare to raise her eyes to her, as if she were
+ashamed of another's crime, might have imagined that she had exaggerated
+the gravity of her misfortune, since her mother had received the
+confidence with so much calmness.  But the calmness of Madame de Tecle at
+this terrible moment was that of the martyrs; for all that could have
+been suffered by the Christians under the claws of the tiger, or on the
+rack of the torturer, this mother was suffering at the hands of her best-
+beloved daughter.  Her beautiful pale face--her large eyes upturned to
+heaven, like those that artists give to the pure victims kneeling in the
+Roman circus--seemed to ask God whether He really had any consolation for
+such torture.
+
+When she had heard all, she summoned strength to smile at her daughter,
+who at last looked up to her with an expression of timid uncertainty--
+embracing her more tightly still.
+
+"Well, my darling," said she, at last, "it is a great affliction, it is
+true.  You are right, notwithstanding; there is nothing to despair of."
+
+"Do you really believe so?"
+
+"Certainly.  There is some inconceivable mystery under all this; but be
+assured that the evil is not so terrible as it appears."
+
+"My poor mother!  but he has acknowledged it?"
+
+"I am better pleased that he has acknowledged it.  That proves he has yet
+some pride, and that some good is left in his soul.  Then, too, he feels
+very much afflicted--he suffers as much as we.  Think of that.  Let us
+think of the future, my darling."
+
+They clasped each other's hands, and smiled at each other to restrain the
+tears which filled the eyes of both.  After a few minutes--"I wish much,
+my child," said Madame de Tecle, "to repose for half an hour; and then
+also I wish to arrange my toilet."
+
+"I will conduct you to your chamber.  Oh, I can walk!  I feel a great
+deal better."
+
+Madame de Camors took her mother's arm and conducted her as far as the
+door of the chamber prepared for her.  On the threshold she left her.
+
+"Be sensible," said Madame de Tecle, turning and giving her another
+smile.
+
+"And you also," said the young woman, whose voice failed her.
+
+Madame de Tecle, as soon as the door was closed, raised her clasped hands
+toward heaven; then, falling on her knees before the bed, she buried her
+head in it, and wept despairingly.
+
+The library of M. de Camors was contiguous to this chamber.  He had been
+walking with long strides up and down this corridor, expecting every
+moment to see Madame de Tecle enter.  As the time passed, he sat himself
+down and tried to read, but his thoughts wandered.  His ear eagerly
+caught, against his will, the slightest sounds in the house.  If a foot
+seemed approaching him, he rose suddenly and tried to compose his
+countenance.  When the door of the neighboring chamber was opened, his
+agony was redoubled.  He distinguished the whispering of the two voices;
+then, an instant after, the dull fall of Madame de Tecle upon the carpet;
+then her despairing sobs.  M. de Camors threw from him violently the book
+which he was forcing himself to read, and, placing his elbows on the
+bureau which was before him, held, for a long time, his pale brow
+tightened in his contracted hands.  When the sound of sobs abated little
+by little, and then ceased, he breathed freer.  About midday he received
+this note:
+
+     "If you will permit me to take my daughter to the country for a few
+     days, I shall be grateful to you.
+
+                                        "ELISE DE TECLE."
+
+
+He returned immediately this simple reply:
+
+     "You can do nothing of which I do not approve to-day and always.
+                                     CAMORS."
+
+Madame de Tecle, in fact, having consulted the inclination and the
+strength of her daughter, had determined to remove her without delay,
+if possible, from the impressions of the spot where she had suffered so
+severely from the presence of her husband, and from the unfortunate
+embarrassment of their situation.  She desired also to meditate in
+solitude, in order to decide what course to take under such unexampled
+circumstances.  Finally, she had not the courage to see M. de Camors
+again--if she ever could see him again--until some time had elapsed.
+It was not without anxiety that she awaited the reply of the Count to the
+request she had addressed him.
+
+In the midst of the troubled confusion of her ideas, she believed him
+capable of almost anything; and she feared everything from him.  The
+Count's note reassured her.  She hastened to read it to her daughter;
+and both of them, like two poor lost creatures who cling to the smallest
+twig, remarked with pleasure the tone of respectful abandonment with
+which he had reposed their destinies in their own hands.  He spent his
+whole day at the session of the Corps Legislatif; and when he returned,
+they had departed.
+
+Madame de Camors woke up the next morning in the chamber where her
+girlhood had passed.  The birds of spring were singing under her windows
+in the old ancestral gardens.  As she recognized these friendly voices,
+so familiar to her infancy, her heart melted; but several hours' sleep
+had restored to her her natural courage.  She banished the thoughts which
+had weakened her, rose, and went to surprise her mother at her first
+waking.  Soon after, both of them were walking together on the terrace of
+lime-trees.  It was near the end of April; the young, scented verdure
+spread itself out beneath the sunbeams; buzzing flies already swarmed in
+the half-opened roses, in the blue pyramids of lilacs, and in the
+clusters of pink clover.  After a few turns made in silence in the midst
+of this fresh and enchanting scene, the young Countess, seeing her mother
+absorbed in reverie, took her hand.
+
+"Mother," she said, "do not be sad.  Here we are as formerly--both of us
+in our little nook.  We shall be happy."
+
+The mother looked at her, took her head and kissed her fervently on the
+forehead.
+
+"You are an angel!"  she said.
+
+It must be confessed that their uncle, Des Rameures, notwithstanding the
+tender affection he showed them, was rather in the way.  He never had
+liked Camors; he had accepted him as a nephew as he had accepted him for
+a deputy--with more of resignation than enthusiasm.  His antipathy was
+only too well justified by the event; but it was necessary to keep him in
+ignorance of it.  He was an excellent man; but rough and blunt.  The
+conduct of Camors, if he had but suspected it, would surely have urged
+him to some irreparable quarrel.  Therefore Madame de Tecle and her
+daughter, in his presence, were compelled to make only half utterances,
+and maintain great reserve--as much as if he had been a stranger.  This
+painful restraint would have become insupportable had not the young
+Countess's health, day by day, assumed a less doubtful character, and
+furnished them with excuses for their preoccupation, their disquiet, and
+their retired life.
+
+Madame de Tecle, who reproached herself with the misfortunes of her
+daughter, as her own work, and who condemned herself with an unspeakable
+bitterness, did not cease to search, in the midst of those ruins of the
+past and of the present, some reparation, some refuge for the future.
+The first idea which presented itself to her imagination had been to
+separate absolutely, and at any cost, the Countess from her husband.
+Under the first shock of fright which the duplicity of Camors had
+inflicted upon her, she could not dwell without horror on the thought of
+replacing her child at the side of such a man.  But this separation-
+supposing they could obtain it, through the consent of M. de Camors, or
+the authority of the law--would give to the public a secret scandal, and
+might entail redoubled catastrophes.  Were it not for these consequences
+she would, at least, have dug between Madame de Camors and her husband an
+eternal abyss.  Madame de Tecle did not desire this.  By force of
+reflection she had finally seen through the character of M. de Camors in
+one day--not probably more favorably, but more truly.  Madame de Tecle,
+although a stranger to all wickedness, knew the world and knew life, and
+her penetrating intelligence divined yet more than she knew certainly.
+She then very nearly understood what species of moral monster M. de
+Camors was.  Such as she understood him, she hoped something from him
+still.  However, the condition of the Countess offered her some
+consolation in the future, which she ought not to risk depriving herself
+of; and God might permit that this pledge of this unfortunate union might
+some day reunite the severed ties.
+
+Madame de Tecle, in communicating her reflections, her hopes, and her
+fears to her daughter, added: "My poor child, I have almost lost the
+right to give you counsel; but I tell you, were it myself I should act
+thus."
+
+"Very well, mother, I shall do so," replied the young woman.
+
+"Reflect well on it first, for the situation which you are about to
+accept will have much bitterness in it; but we have only a choice of
+evils."
+
+At the close of this conversation, and eight days after their arrival in
+the country, Madame de Tecle wrote M. de Camors a letter, which she read
+to her daughter, who approved it.
+
+     "I understood you to say, that you would restore to your wife her
+     liberty if she wished to resume it.  She neither wishes, nor could
+     she accept it.  Her first duty is to the child which will bear your
+     name.  It does not depend on her to keep this name stainless.  She
+     prays you, then, to reserve for her a place in your house.  You need
+     not fear any trouble or any reproach from her.  She and I know how
+     to suffer in silence.  Nevertheless, I supplicate you to be true to
+     her--to spare her.  Will you leave her yet a few days in peace, then
+     recall, or come for her?"
+
+This letter touched M. de Camors deeply.  Impassive as he was, it can
+easily be imagined that after the departure of his wife he had not
+enjoyed perfect ease of mind.  Uncertainty is the worst of all evils,
+because everything may be apprehended.  Deprived entirely of all news for
+eight days, there was no possible catastrophe he did not fancy floating
+over his head.  He had the haughty courage to conceal from Madame de
+Campvallon the event that had occurred in his house, and to leave her
+undisturbed while he himself was sleepless for many nights.  It was by
+such efforts of energy and of indomitable pride that this strange man
+preserved within his own consciousness a proud self-esteem.  The letter
+of Madame de Tecle came to him like a deliverance.  He sent the following
+brief reply:
+
+     "I accept your decision with gratitude and respect.  The resolution
+     of your daughter is generous.  I have yet enough of generosity left
+     myself to comprehend this.  I am forever, whether you wish it or
+     not, her friend and yours.
+
+                                             "CAMORS."
+
+A week later, having taken the precaution of announcing his intention, he
+arrived one evening at Madame de Tecle's.
+
+His young wife kept her chamber.  They had taken care to have no
+witnesses, but their meeting was less painful and less embarrassing than
+they apprehended.
+
+Madame de Tecle and her daughter found in his courteous reply a gleam of
+nobleness which inspired them with a shadow of confidence.  Above all,
+they were proud, and more averse to noisy scenes than women usually are.
+They received him coldly, then, but calmly.  On his part, he displayed
+toward them in his looks and language a subdued seriousness and sadness,
+which did not lack either dignity or grace.
+
+The conversation having dwelt for some time on the health of the
+Countess, turned on current news, on local incidents, and took, little by
+little, an easy and ordinary tone.  M. de Camors, under the pretext of
+slight fatigue, retired as he had entered--saluting both the ladies, but
+without attempting to take their hands.  Thus was inaugurated, between
+Madame de Camors and her husband, the new, singular relation which should
+hereafter be the only tie in their common life.
+
+The world might easily be silenced, because M. de Camors never had been
+very demonstrative in public toward his wife, and his courteous but
+reserved manner toward her did not vary from his habitual demeanor.  He
+remained two days at Reuilly.
+
+Madame de Tecle vainly waited for these two days for a slight
+explanation, which she did not wish to demand, but which she hoped for.
+
+What were the terrible circumstances which had overruled the will of M.
+de Camors, to the point of making him forget the most sacred sentiments?
+When her thoughts plunged into this dread mystery, they never approached
+the truth.  M. de Camors might have committed this base action under the
+menace of some great danger to save the fortune, the honor, probably the
+life of Madame de Campvallon.  This, though a poor excuse in the mother's
+eyes, still was an extenuation.  Probably also he had in his heart, while
+marrying her daughter, the resolution to break off this fatal liaison,
+which he had again resumed against his will, as often happens.  On all
+these painful points she dwelt after the departure of M. de Camors, as
+she had previous to his arrival; confined to her own conjectures, when
+she suggested to her daughter the most consolatory appearances.  It was
+agreed upon that Madame de Camors should remain in the country until her
+health was reestablished: only her husband expressed the desire that she
+should reside ordinarily on his estate at Reuilly, the chateau on which
+had recently been restored with the greatest taste.
+
+Madame de Tecle felt the propriety of this arrangement.  She herself
+abandoned the old habitation of the Comte de Tecle, to install herself
+near her daughter in the modest chateau which belonged to the maternal
+ancestors of M. de Camors, and which we have already described in another
+place, with its solemn avenue, its balustrades of granite, its labyrinths
+of hornbeams and the black fishpond, shaded with poplars.
+
+Both dwelt there in the midst of their sweetest and most pleasant
+souvenirs; for this little chateau, so long deserted--the neglected woods
+which surrounded it the melancholy piece of water--the solitary nymph all
+this had been their particular domain, the favorite framework of their
+reveries, the legend of their infancy, the poetry of their youth.  It was
+doubtless a great grief to revisit again, with tearful eyes and wounded
+hearts and heads bowed by the storms of life, the familiar paths where
+they once knew happiness and peace.  But, nevertheless, all these dear
+confidants of past joys, of blasted hopes, of vanished dreams--if they
+are mournful witnesses they are also friends.  We love them; and they
+seem to love us.  Thus these two poor women, straying amid these woods,
+these waters, these solitudes, bearing with them their incurable wounds,
+fancied they heard voices which pitied them and breathed a healing
+sympathy.  The most cruel trial reserved to Madame de Camors in the life
+which she had the courage and judgment to adopt, was assuredly the duty
+of again seeing the Marquise de Campvallon, and preserving with her such
+relations as might blind the eyes of the General and of the world.
+
+She resigned herself even to this; but she desired to defer as long as
+possible the pain of such a meeting.  Her health supplied her with a
+natural excuse for not going, during that summer, to Campvallon, and also
+for keeping herself confined to her own room the day the Marquise visited
+Reuilly, accompanied by the General.
+
+Madame de Tecle received her with her usual kindness.  Madame de
+Campvallon, whom M. de Camors had already warned, did not trouble herself
+much; for the best women, like the worst, excel in comedy, and everything
+passed off without the General having conceived the shadow of a
+suspicion.
+
+The fine season had passed.  M. de Camors had visited the country several
+times, strengthening at every interview the new tone of his relations
+with his wife.  He remained at Reuilly, as was his custom, during the
+month of August; and under the pretext of the health of the Countess, did
+not multiply his visits that year to Campvallon.  On his return to Paris,
+he resumed his old habits, and also his careless egotism, for he
+recovered little by little from the blow he had received.  He began to
+forget his sufferings and those of his wife; and even to felicitate
+himself secretly on the turn that chance had given to her situation.  He
+had obtained the advantage and had no longer any annoyance.  His wife had
+been enlightened, and he no longer deceived her--which was a comfortable
+thing for him.  As for her, she would soon be a mother, she would have a
+plaything, a consolation; and he designed redoubling his attentions and
+regards to her.
+
+She would be happy, or nearly so; as much so as two thirds of the women
+in the world.
+
+Everything was for the best.  He gave anew the reins to his car and
+launched himself afresh on his brilliant career-proud of his royal
+mistress, and foreseeing in the distance, to crown his life, the triumphs
+of ambition and power.  Pleading various doubtful engagements, he went to
+Reuilly only once during the autumn; but he wrote frequently, and Madame
+de Tecle sent him in return brief accounts of his wife's health.
+
+One morning toward the close of November, he received a despatch which
+made him understand, in telegraphic style, that his presence was
+immediately required at Reuilly, if he wished to be present at the birth
+of his son.
+
+Whenever social duties or courtesy were required of M. de Camors, he
+never hesitated.  Seeing he had not a moment to spare if he wished to
+catch the train which left that morning, he jumped into a cab and drove
+to the station.  His servant would join him the next morning.
+
+The station at Reuilly was several miles distant from the house.
+In the confusion no arrangement had been made to receive him on his
+arrival, and he was obliged to content himself with making the
+intermediate journey in a heavy country-wagon.  The bad condition of the
+roads was a new obstacle, and it was three o'clock in the morning when
+the Count, impatient and travel-worn, jumped out of the little cart
+before the railings of his avenue.  He strode toward the house under the
+dark and silent dome of the tufted elms.  He was in the middle of the
+avenue when a sharp cry rent the air.  His heart bounded in his breast:
+he suddenly stopped and listened attentively.  The cry echoed through the
+stillness of the night.  One would have deemed it the despairing shriek
+of a human being under the knife of a murderer.
+
+These dolorous sounds gradually ceasing, he continued his walk with
+greater haste, and only heard the hollow and muffled sound of his own
+beating heart.  At the moment he saw the lights of the chateau, another
+agonized cry, more shrill and alarming than the first, arose.
+
+This time Camors stopped.  Notwithstanding that the natural explanation
+of these agonized cries presented itself to his mind, he was troubled.
+
+It is not unusual that men like him, accustomed to a purely artificial
+life, feel a strange surprise when one of the simplest laws of nature
+presents itself all at once before them with a violence as imperious and
+irresistible as a divine law.  Camors soon reached the house, and
+receiving some information from the servants, notified Madame de Tecle of
+his arrival.  Madame de Tecle immediately descended from her daughter's
+room.  On seeing her convulsed features and streaming eyes, "Are you
+alarmed?"  Camors asked, quickly.
+
+"Alarmed?  No," she replied; "but she suffers much, and it is very long."
+
+"Can I see her?"
+
+There was a moment's silence.
+
+Madame de Tecle, whose forehead was contracted, lowered her eyes, then
+raised them.  "If you insist on it," she said.
+
+"I insist on nothing!  If you believe my presence would do her harm--"
+The voice of Camors was not as steady as usual.
+
+"I am afraid," replied Madame de Tecle, "that it would agitate her
+greatly; and if you will have confidence in me, I shall be much obliged
+to you."
+
+"But at least," said Camors, "she might probably be glad to know that I
+have come, and that I am here--that I have not abandoned her."
+
+"I shall tell her."
+
+"It is well."  He saluted Madame de Tecle with a slight movement of his
+head, and turned away immediately.
+
+He entered the garden at the back of the house, and walked abstractedly
+from alley to alley.  We know that generally the role of men in the
+situation in which M. de Camors at this moment was placed is not very
+easy or very glorious; but the common annoyance of this position was
+particularly aggravated to him by painful reflections.  Not only was his
+assistance not needed, but it was repelled; not only was he far from a
+support on the contrary, he was but an additional danger and sorrow.
+In this thought was a bitterness which he keenly felt.  His native
+generosity, his humanity, shuddered as he heard the terrible cries and
+accents of distress which succeeded each other without intermission.
+He passed some heavy hours in the damp garden this cold night, and the
+chilly morning which succeeded it.  Madame de Tecle came frequently to
+give him the news.  Near eight o'clock he saw her approach him with a
+grave and tranquil air.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "it is a boy."
+
+"I thank you.  How is she?"
+
+"Well.  I shall request you to go and see her shortly."
+
+Half an hour later she reappeared on the threshold of the vestibule, and
+called:
+
+"Monsieur de Camors!"  and when he approached her, she added, with an
+emotion which made her lips tremble:
+
+"She has been uneasy for some time past.  She is afraid that you have
+kept terms with her in order to take the child.  If ever you have such a
+thought--not now, Monsieur.  Have you?"
+
+"You are severe, Madame," he replied in a hoarse voice.
+
+She breathed a sigh.
+
+"Come!"  she said, and led the way upstairs.  She opened the door of the
+chamber and permitted him to enter it alone.
+
+His first glance caught the eyes of his young wife fixed upon him.  She
+was half sitting up in bed, supported by pillows, and whiter than the
+curtains whose shadow enveloped her.  She held clasped to her breast her
+sleeping infant, which was already covered, like its mother, with lace
+and pink ribbons.  From the depths of this nest she fixed on her husband
+her large eyes, sparkling with a kind of savage light--an expression in
+which the sentiment of triumph was blended with one of profound terror.
+He stopped within a few feet of the bed, and saluted her with his most
+winning smile.
+
+"I have pitied you very much, Marie," he said.
+
+"I thank you!"  she replied, in a voice as feeble as a sigh.
+
+She continued to regard him with the same suppliant and affrighted air.
+
+"Are you a little happier now?"  he continued.
+
+The glittering eye of the young woman was fastened on the calm face of
+her infant.  Then turning toward Camors:
+
+"You will not take him from me?"
+
+"Never!"  he replied.
+
+As he pronounced these words his eyes were suddenly dimmed, and he was
+astonished himself to feel a tear trickling down his cheek.  He
+experienced a singular feeling, he bent over, seized the folds of the
+sheet, raised them to his lips, rose immediately and left the room.
+
+In this terrible struggle, too often victorious against nature and truth,
+the man was for once vanquished.  But it would be idle to imagine that a
+character of this temperament and of this obduracy could transform
+itself, or could be materially modified under the stroke of a few
+transitory emotions, or of a few nervous shocks.  M. de Camors rallied
+quickly from his weakness, if even he did not repent it.  He spent eight
+days at Reuilly, remarking in the countenance of Madame de Tecle and in
+her manner toward him, more ease than formerly.
+
+On his return to Paris, with thoughtful care he made some changes in the
+interior arrangement of his mansion.  This was to prepare for the
+Countess and her son, who were to join him a few weeks later, larger and
+more comfortable apartments, in which they were to be installed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE REPTILE TURNS TO STING
+
+When Madame de Camors came to Paris and entered the home of her husband,
+she there experienced the painful impressions of the past, and the sombre
+preoccupations of the future; but she brought with her, although in a
+fragile form, a powerful consolation.
+
+Assailed by grief, and ever menaced by new emotion she was obliged to
+renounce the nursing of her child; but, nevertheless, she never left him,
+for she was jealous even of his nurse.  She at least wished to be loved
+by him.  She loved him with an infinite passion.  She loved him because
+he was her own son and of her blood.  He was the price of her misfortune
+--of her pain.  She loved him because he was her only hope of human
+happiness hereafter.  She loved him because she found him as beautiful as
+the day.  And it was true he was so; for he resembled his father--and she
+loved him also on that account.  She tried to concentrate her heart and
+all her thoughts on this dear creature, and at first she thought she had
+succeeded.  She was surprised at herself, at her own tranquillity, when
+she saw Madame de Campvallon; for her lively imagination had exhausted,
+in advance, all the sadness which her new existence could contain; but
+when she had lost the kind of torpor into which excessive suffering had
+plunged her--when her maternal sensations were a little quieted by
+custom, her woman's heart recovered itself in the mother's.  She could
+not prevent herself from renewing her passionate interest in her graceful
+though terrible husband.
+
+Madame de Tecle went to pass two months with her daughter in Paris, and
+then returned to the country.
+
+Madame de Camors wrote to her, in the beginning of the following spring,
+a letter which gave her an exact idea of the sentiments of the young
+woman at the time, and of the turn her domestic life had taken.  After a
+long and touching detail of the health and beauty of her son Robert, she
+added:
+
+     "His father is always to me what you have seen him.  He spares me
+     everything he can spare me, but evidently the fatality he has obeyed
+     continues under the same form.  Notwithstanding, I do not despair of
+     the future, my beloved mother.  Since I saw that tear in his eye,
+     confidence has entered my poor heart.  Be assured, my adored mother,
+     that he will love me one day, if it is only through our child, whom
+     he begins quietly to love without himself perceiving it.  At first,
+     as you remember, this infant was no more to him than I was.  When he
+     surprised him on my knee, he would give him a cold kiss, say, '
+     Good-morning, Monsieur,' and withdraw.  It is just one month--I have
+     forgotten the date--it was, 'Good-morning, my son--how pretty you
+     are!'  You see the progress; and do you know, finally, what passed
+     yesterday?  I entered Robert's room noiselessly; the door was open--
+     what did I behold, my mother!  Monsieur de Camors, with his head
+     resting on the pillow of the cradle, and laughing at this little
+     creature, who smiled back at him!  I assure you, he blushed and
+     excused himself: 'The door was open,' he said, 'and I came in.'
+     I assured him that he had done nothing wrong.
+
+     "Monsieur de Camors is very odd sometimes.  He occasionally passes
+     the limits which were agreed upon as necessary.  He is not only
+     polite, but takes great trouble.  Alas!  once these courtesies would
+     have fallen upon my heart like roses from heaven--now they annoy me
+     a little.  Last evening, for example, I sat down, as is my custom,
+     at my piano after dinner, he reading a journal at the chimney-
+     corner--his usual hour for going out passed.  Behold me, much
+     surprised.  I threw a furtive glance, between two bars of music,
+     at him: he was not reading, he was not sleeping--he was dreaming.
+     'Is there anything new in the Journal?'--'No, no; nothing at all.'
+     Another two or three bars of music, and I entered my son's room.
+     He was in bed and asleep.  I devoured him with kisses and returned--
+     Monsieur de Camors was still there.  And now, surprise after
+     surprise: 'Have you heard from your mother?  What does she say?
+     Have you seen Madame Jaubert?  Have you read this review?'  Just
+     like one who sought to open a conversation.  Once I would willingly
+     have paid with my blood for one of these evenings, and now he offers
+     them to me, when I know not what to do with them.  Notwithstanding I
+     remember the advice of my mother, I do not wish to discourage these
+     symptoms.  I adopt a festive manner.  I light four extra waxlights.
+     I try to be amiable without being coquettish; for coquetry here
+     would be shameful--would it not, my dear mother?  Finally, we
+     chatted together; he sang two airs to the piano; I played two
+     others; he painted the design of a little Russian costume for Robert
+     to wear next year; then talked politics to me.  This enchanted me.
+     He explained to me his situation in the Chamber.  Midnight arrived;
+     I became remarkably silent; he rose: 'May I press your hand in
+     friendship?'--' Mon Dieu!  yes.'--'Good-night, Marie.'--'
+     Goodnight.' Yes, my mother, I read your thoughts.  There is danger
+     here!  but you have shown it to me; and I believe also, I should
+     have perceived it by myself.  Do not fear, then.  I shall be happy
+     at his good inclinations, and shall encourage them to the best of my
+     power; but I shall not be in haste to perceive a return, on his
+     part, toward virtue and myself.  I see here in society arrangements
+     which revolt me.  In the midst of my misfortune I remain pure and
+     proud; but I should fall into the deepest contempt of myself if I
+     should ever permit myself to be a plaything for Monsieur de Camors.
+     A man so fallen does not raise himself in a day.  If ever he really
+     returns to me, it will be necessary for me to have much proof.  I
+     never have ceased to love him, and probably he doubts it: but he
+     will learn that if this sad love can break my heart it can never
+     abase it; and it is unnecessary to tell my mother that I shall live
+     and die courageously in my widow's robe.
+
+     "There are other symptoms which also strike me.  He is more
+     attentive to me when she is present.  This may probably be arranged
+     between them, but I doubt it.  The other evening we were at the
+     General's.  She was waltzing, and Monsieur de Camors, as a rare
+     favor, came and seated himself at your daughter's side.  In passing
+     before us she threw him a look--a flash.  I felt the flame.  Her
+     blue eyes glared ferociously.  He perceived it.  I have not
+     assuredly much tenderness for her.  She is my most cruel enemy; but
+     if ever she suffers what she has made me suffer-yes, I believe I
+     shall pity her.  My mother, I embrace you.  I embrace our dear lime-
+     trees.  I taste their young leaves as in olden times.  Scold me as
+     in old times, and love, above all things, as in old times, your
+                                             MARIE."
+
+This wise young woman, matured by misfortune, observed everything saw
+everything--and exaggerated nothing.  She touched, in this letter, on the
+most delicate points in the household of M. de Camors--and even of his
+secret thoughts--with accurate justice.  For Camors was not at all
+converted, nor near being so; but it would be belying human nature to
+attribute to his heart, or that of any other human being, a supernatural
+impassibility.  If the dark and implacable theories which M. de Camors
+had made the law of his existence could triumph absolutely, this would be
+true.  The trials he had passed through did not reform him, they only
+staggered him.  He did not pursue his paths with the same firmness; he
+strayed from his programme.  He pitied one of his victims, and, as one
+wrong always entails another, after pitying his wife, he came near loving
+his child.  These two weaknesses had glided into his petrified soul as
+into a marble fount, and there took root-two imperceptible roots,
+however.  The child occupied him not more than a few moments every day.
+He thought of him, however, and would return home a little earlier than
+usual each day than was his habit, secretly attracted by the smile of
+that fresh face.  The mother was for him something more.  Her sufferings,
+her youthful heroism had touched him.  She became somebody in his eyes.
+He discovered many merits in her.  He perceived she was remarkably well-
+informed for a woman, and prodigiously so for a French woman.  She
+understood half a word--knew a great deal--and guessed at the remainder.
+She had, in short, that blending of grace and solidity which gives to the
+conversation of a woman of cultivated mind an incomparable charm.
+Habituated from infancy to her mental superiority as to her pretty face,
+she carried the one as unconsciously as the other.  She devoted herself
+to the care of his household as if she had no idea beyond it.  There were
+domestic details which she would not confide to servants.  She followed
+them into her salons, into her boudoirs, a blue feather-brush in hand,
+lightly dusting the 'etageres', the 'jardinieres', the 'consoles'.  She
+arranged one piece of furniture and removed another, put flowers in a
+vase-gliding about and singing like a bird in a cage.
+
+Her husband sometimes amused himself in following her with his eye in
+these household occupations.  She reminded him of the princesses one sees
+in the ballet of the opera, reduced by some change of fortune to a
+temporary servitude, who dance while putting the house in order.
+
+"How you love order, Marie!"  said he to her one day.
+
+"Order" she said, gravely, "is the moral beauty of things."
+
+She emphasized the word things--and, fearing she might be considered
+pretentious, she blushed.
+
+She was a lovable creature, and it can be understood that she might have
+many attractions, even for her husband.  Yet though he had not for one
+instant the idea of sacrificing to her the passion that ruled his life,
+it is certain, however, that his wife pleased him as a charming friend,
+which she was, and probably as a charming forbidden fruit, which she also
+was.  Two or three years passed without making any sensible change in the
+relations of the different persons in this history.  This was the most
+brilliant phase and probably the happiest in the life of M. de Camors.
+
+His marriage had doubled his fortune, and his clever speculations
+augmented it every day.  He had increased the retinue of his house in
+proportion to his new resources.  In the region of elegant high life he
+decidedly held the sceptre.  His horses, his equipages, his artistic
+tastes, even his toilet, set the law.
+
+His liaison with Madame de Campvallon, without being proclaimed, was
+suspected, and completed his prestige.  At the same time his capacity as
+a political man began to be acknowledged.  He had spoken in some recent
+debate, and his maiden speech was a triumph.  His prosperity was great.
+It was nevertheless true that M. de Camors did not enjoy it without
+trouble.  Two black spots darkened the sky above his head, and might
+contain destroying thunder.  His life was eternally suspended on a
+thread.
+
+Any day General Campvallon might be informed of the intrigue which
+dishonored him, either through some selfish treason, or through some
+public rumor, which might begin to spread.  Should this ever happen, he
+knew the General never would submit to it; and he had determined never to
+defend his life against his outraged friend.
+
+This resolve, firmly decided upon in his secret soul, gave him the last
+solace to his conscience.  All his future destiny was thus at the mercy
+of an accident most likely to happen.  The second cause of his
+disquietude was the jealous hatred of Madame Campvallon toward the young
+rival she had herself selected.  After jesting freely on this subject at
+first, the Marquise had, little by little, ceased even to allude to it.
+
+M. de Camors could not misunderstand certain mute symptoms, and was
+sometimes alarmed at this silent jealousy.  Fearing to exasperate this
+most violent feminine sentiment in so strong a soul, he was compelled day
+by day to resort to tricks which wounded his pride, and probably his
+heart also; for his wife, to whom his new conduct was inexplicable,
+suffered intensely, and he saw it.
+
+One evening in the month of May, 1860, there was a reception at the Hotel
+Campvallon.  The Marquise, before leaving for the country, was making her
+adieus to a choice group of her friends.  Although this fete professed to
+be but an informal gathering, she had organized it with her usual
+elegance and taste.  A kind of gallery, composed of verdure and of
+flowers, connected the salon with the conservatory at the other end of
+the garden.
+
+This evening proved a very painful one to the Comtesse de Camors.  Her
+husband's neglect of her was so marked, his assiduities to the Marquise
+so persistent, their mutual understanding so apparent, that the young
+wife felt the pain of her desertion to an almost insupportable degree.
+She took refuge in the conservatory, and finding herself alone there, she
+wept.
+
+A few moments later, M. de Camors, not seeing her in the salon, became
+uneasy.  She saw him, as he entered the conservatory, in one of those
+instantaneous glances by which women contrive to see without looking.
+She pretended to be examining the flowers, and by a strong effort of will
+dried her tears.  Her husband advanced slowly toward her.
+
+"What a magnificent camellia!"  he said to her.  "Do you know this
+variety?"
+
+"Very well," she replied; "this is the camellia that weeps."
+
+He broke off the flowers.
+
+"Marie," he said, "I never have been much addicted to sentimentality, but
+this flower I shall keep."
+
+She turned upon him her astonished eyes.
+
+"Because I love it," he added.
+
+The noise of a step made them both turn.  It was Madame de Campvallon,
+who was crossing the conservatory on the arm of a foreign diplomat.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, smiling; "I have disturbed you!  How awkward of
+me!"  and she passed out.
+
+Madame de Camors suddenly grew very red, and her husband very pale.  The
+diplomat alone did not change color, for he comprehended nothing.  The
+young Countess, under pretext of a headache, which her face did not
+belie, returned home immediately, promising her husband to send back the
+carriage for him.  Shortly after, the Marquise de Campvallon, obeying a
+secret sign from M. de Camors, rejoined him in the retired boudoir, which
+recalled to them both the most culpable incident of their lives.  She sat
+down beside him on the divan with a haughty nonchalance.
+
+"What is it?"  she said.
+
+"Why do you watch me?"  asked Camors.  "It is unworthy of you!"
+
+"Ah! an explanation?  a disagreeable thing.  It is the first between us--
+at least let us be quick and complete."
+
+She spoke in a voice of restrained passion--her eyes fixed on her foot,
+which she twisted in her satin shoe.
+
+"Well, tell the truth," she said.  "You are in love with your wife."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.  "Unworthy of you, I repeat."
+
+"What, then, mean these delicate attentions to her?"
+
+"You ordered me to marry her, but not to kill her, I suppose?"
+
+She made a strange movement of her eyebrows, which he did not see, for
+neither of them looked at the other.  After a pause she said:
+
+"She has her son!  She has her mother!  I have no one but you.  Hear me,
+my friend; do not make me jealous, for when I am so, ideas torment me
+which terrify even myself.  Wait an instant.  Since we are on this
+subject, if you love her, tell me so.  You know me--you know I am not
+fond of petty artifices.  Well, I fear so much the sufferings and
+humiliations of which I have a presentiment, I am so much afraid of
+myself, that I offer you, and give you, your liberty.  I prefer this
+horrible grief, for it is at least open and noble!  It is no snare that I
+set for you, believe me!  Look at me.  I seldom weep."  The dark blue of
+her eyes was bathed in tears.  "Yes, I am sincere; and I beg of you, if
+it is so, profit by this moment, for if you let it escape, you never will
+find it again."
+
+M. de Camors was little prepared for this decided proposal.  The idea of
+breaking off his liaison with the Marquise never had entered his mind.
+This liaison seemed to him very reconcilable with the sentiments with
+which his wife could inspire him.
+
+It was at the same time the greatest wickedness and the perpetual danger
+of his life, but it was also the excitement, the pride, and the
+magnificent voluptuousness of it.  He shuddered.  The idea of losing the
+love which had cost him so dear exasperated him.  He cast a burning
+glance on this beautiful face, refined and exalted as that of a warring
+archangel.
+
+"My life is yours," he said.  "How could you have dreamed of breaking
+ties like ours?  How could you have alarmed yourself, or even thought of
+my feelings toward another?  I do what honor and humanity command me--
+nothing more.  As for you--I love you--understand that."
+
+"Is it true?"  she asked.  "It is true!  I believe you!"
+
+She took his hand, and gazed at him a moment without speaking--her eye
+dimmed, her bosom palpitating; then suddenly rising, she said, "My
+friend, you know I have guests!"  and saluting him with a smile, left the
+boudoir.
+
+This scene, however, left a disagreeable impression on the mind of
+Camors.  He thought of it impatiently the next morning, while trying a
+horse on the Champs Elysees--when he suddenly found himself face to face
+with his former secretary, Vautrot.  He had never seen this person since
+the day he had thought proper to give himself his own dismissal.
+
+The Champs Elysees was deserted at this hour.  Vautrot could not avoid,
+as he had probably done more than once, encountering Camors.
+
+Seeing himself recognized he saluted him and stopped, with an uneasy
+smile on his lips.  His worn black coat and doubtful linen showed a
+poverty unacknowledged but profound.  M. de Camors did not notice these
+details, or his natural generosity would have awakened, and curbed the
+sudden indignation that took possession of him.
+
+He reined in his horse sharply.
+
+"Ah, is it you, Monsieur Vautrot?"  he said.  "You have left England
+then!  What are you doing now?"
+
+"I am looking for a situation, Monsieur de Camors," said Vautrot, humbly,
+who knew his old patron too well not to read clearly in the curl of his
+moustache the warning of a storm.
+
+"And why," said Camors, "do you not return to your trade of locksmith?
+You were so skilful at it!  The most complicated locks had no secrets for
+you."
+
+"I do not understand your meaning," murmured Vautrot.
+
+"Droll fellow!"  and throwing out these words with an accent of withering
+scorn, M. de Camors struck Vautrot's shoulder lightly with the end of his
+riding-whip, and tranquilly passed on at a walk.
+
+Vautrot was truly in search of a place, had he consented to accept one
+fitted to his talents; but he was, as will be remembered, one of those
+whose vanity was greater than his merit, and one who loved an office
+better than work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SECOND ACT OF THE TRAGEDY
+
+Vautrot had at this time fallen into the depth of want and distress,
+which, if aggravated, would prompt him to evil and even to crime.  There
+are many examples of the extremes to which this kind of intelligence, at
+once ambitious, grasping, yet impotent, can transport its possessor.
+Vautrot, in awaiting better times, had relapsed into his old role of
+hypocrite, in which he had formerly succeeded so well.  Only the evening
+before he had returned to the house of Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and made
+honorable amends for his philosophical heresies; for he was like the
+Saxons in the time of Charlemagne, who asked to be baptized every time
+they wanted new tunics.  Madame de la Roche-Jugan had given a kind
+reception to this sad prodigal son, but she chilled perceptibly on seeing
+him more discreet than she desired on certain subjects, the mystery of
+which she had set her heart upon unravelling.
+
+She was now more preoccupied than ever about the relations which she
+suspected to exist between M. de Camors and Madame de Campvallon.  These
+relations could not but prove fatal to the hopes she had so long founded
+on the widowhood of the Marquise and the heritage of the General.  The
+marriage of M. de Camors had for the moment deceived her, but she was one
+of those pious persons who always think evil, and whose suspicions are
+soon reawakened.  She tried to obtain from Vautrot, who had so long been
+intimate with her nephew, some explanation of the mystery; but as Vautrot
+was too prudent to enlighten her, she turned him out of doors.
+
+After his encounter with M. de Camors, he immediately turned his steps
+toward the Rue St. Dominique, and an hour later Madame de la Roche-Jugan
+had the pleasure of knowing all that he knew of the liaison between the
+Count and the Marquise.  But we remember that he knew everything.  These
+revelations, though not unexpected, terrified Madame de la Roche-Jugan,
+who saw her maternal projects destroyed forever.  To her bitter feeling
+at this deception was immediately joined, in this base soul, a sudden
+thirst for revenge.  It was true she had been badly recompensed for her
+anonymous letter, by which she had previously attempted to open the eyes
+of the unfortunate General; for from that moment the General, the
+Marquise, and M. de Camors himself, without an open rupture, let her feel
+their marks of contempt, which embittered her heart.  She never would
+again expose herself to a similar slight of this kind; but she must
+assuredly, in the cause of good morals, at once confront the blind with
+the culpable, and this time with such proofs as would make the blow
+irresistible.  By the mere thought, Madame de la Roche-Jugan had
+persuaded herself that the new turn events were taking might become
+favorable to the expectations which had become the fixed idea of her
+life.
+
+Madame de Campvallon destroyed, M. de Camors set aside, the General would
+be alone in the world; and it was natural to suppose he would turn to his
+young relative Sigismund, if only to recognize the far-sighted affection
+and wounded heart of Madame de la Roche-Jugan.
+
+The General, in fact, had by his marriage contract settled all his
+property on his wife; but Madame de la Roche-Jugan, who had consulted a
+lawyer on this question, knew that he had the power of alienating his
+fortune during life, and of stripping his unworthy wife and transferring
+it to Sigismund.
+
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan did not shrink from the probability--which was
+most likely--of an encounter between the General and Camors.  Every one
+knows the disdainful intrepidity of women in the matter of duels.  She
+had no scruple, therefore, in engaging Vautrot in the meritorious work
+she meditated.  She secured him by some immediate advantages and by
+promises; she made him believe the General would recompense him largely.
+Vautrot, smarting still from the cut of Camors's whip on his shoulder,
+and ready to kill him with his own hand had he dared, hardly required the
+additional stimulus of gain to aid his protectress in her vengeance by
+acting as her instrument.
+
+He resolved, however, since he had the opportunity, to put himself, once
+for all, beyond misery and want, by cleverly speculating, through the
+secret he held, on the great fortune of the General.  This secret he had
+already given to Madame de Camors under the inspiration of another
+sentiment, but he had then in his hands the proofs, which he now was
+without.
+
+It was necessary, then, for him to arm himself with new and infallible
+proofs; but if the intrigue he was required to unmask still existed, he
+did not despair of detecting something certain, aided by the general
+knowledge he had of the private habits and ways of Camors.  This was the
+task to which he applied himself from this moment, day and night, with an
+evil ardor of hate and jealousy.  The absolute confidence which the
+General reposed in his wife and Camors after the latter's marriage with
+Marie de Tecle, had doubtless allowed them to dispense with much of the
+mystery and adventure of their intrigue; but that which was ardent,
+poetic, and theatrical to the Marquise's imagination had not been lost.
+Love alone was not sufficient for her.  She needed danger, scenic effect,
+and pleasure heightened by terror.  Once or twice, in the early time, she
+was reckless enough to leave her house during the night and to return
+before day.  But she was obliged to renounce these audacious flights,
+finding them too perilous.
+
+These nocturnal interviews with M. de Camors were rare, and she had
+usually received him at home.  This was their arrangement: An open space,
+sometimes used as a woodyard, was next the garden of the Hotel
+Campvallon.  The General had purchased a portion of it and had had a
+cottage erected in the midst of a kitchen-garden, and had placed in it,
+with his usual kind-heartedness, an old 'sous-officier', named Mesnil,
+who had served under him in the artillery.  This Mesnil enjoyed his
+master's confidence.  He was a kind of forester on the property; he lived
+in Paris in the winter, but occasionally passed two or three days in the
+country whenever the General wished to obtain information about the
+crops.  Madame de Campvallon and M. de Camors chose the time of these
+absences for their dangerous interviews at night.  Camors, apprised from
+within by some understood signal, entered the enclosure surrounding the
+cottage of Mesnil, and thence proceeded to the garden belonging to the
+house.  Madame de Campvallon always charged herself with the peril that
+charmed her--with keeping open one of the windows on the ground floor.
+The Parisian custom of lodging the domestics in the attics gave to this
+hardihood a sort of security, notwithstanding its being always hazardous.
+Near the end of May, one of these occasions, always impatiently awaited
+on both sides, presented itself, and M. de Camors at midnight penetrated
+into the little garden of the old 'sous-officier'.  At the moment when he
+turned the key in the gate of the enclosure, he thought he heard a slight
+sound behind him.  He turned, cast a rapid glance over the dark space
+that surrounded him, and thinking himself mistaken, entered.  An instant
+after, the shadow of a man appeared at the angle of a pile of lumber,
+which was scattered over the carpenter's yard.  This shadow remained for
+some time immovable in front of the windows of the hotel and then plunged
+again into the darkness.
+
+The following week M. de Camors was at the club one evening, playing
+whist with the General.  He remarked that the General was not playing his
+usual game, and saw also imprinted on his features a painful
+preoccupation.
+
+"Are you in pain, General?"  said he, after they had finished their game.
+
+"No, no!"  said the General; "I am only annoyed--a tiresome affair
+between two of my people in the country.  I sent Mesnil away this morning
+to examine into it."
+
+The General took a few steps, then returned to Camors and took him aside:
+"My friend," he said, "I deceived you, just now; I have something on my
+mind--something very serious.  I am even very unhappy!"
+
+"What is the matter?"  said Camors, whose heart sank.
+
+"I shall tell you that probably to-morrow.  Come, in any case, to see me
+to-morrow morning.  Won't you?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"Thanks!  Now I shall go--for I am really not well."
+
+He clasped his hand more affectionately than usual.
+
+"Adieu, my dear child," he added, and turned around brusquely to hide the
+tears which suddenly filled his eyes.  M. de Camors experienced for some
+moments a lively disquietude, but the friendly and tender adieus of the
+General reassured him that it did not relate to himself.  Still he
+continued astonished and even affected by the emotion of the old man.
+
+Was it not strange?  If there was one man in the world whom he loved, or
+to whom he would have devoted himself, it was this one whom he had
+mortally wronged.
+
+He had, however, good reason to be uneasy; and was wrong in reassuring
+himself; for the General in the course of that evening had been informed
+of the treachery of his wife--at least he had been prepared for it.  Only
+he was still ignorant of the name of her accomplice.
+
+Those who informed him were afraid of encountering the blind and
+obstinate faith of the General, had they named Camors.
+
+It was probable, also, after what had already occurred, that had they
+again pronounced that name, the General would have repelled the suspicion
+as a monstrous impossibility, regretting even the thought.
+
+M. de Camors remained until one o'clock at the club and then went to the
+Rue Vanneau.  He was introduced into the Hotel Campvallon with the
+customary precautions; and this time we shall follow him there.  In
+traversing the garden, he raised his eyes to the General's window, and
+saw the soft light of the night-lamp burning behind the blinds.
+
+The Marquise awaited him at the door of her boudoir, which opened on a
+rotunda at an elevation of a few feet.  He kissed her hand, and told her
+in few words of the General's sadness.
+
+She replied that she had been very uneasy about his health for some days.
+This explanation seemed natural to M. de Camors, and he followed the
+Marquise through the dark and silent salon.  She held in her hand a
+candle, the feeble light of which threw on her delicate features a
+strange pallor.  When they passed up the long, echoing staircase, the
+rustling of her skirt on the steps was the only sound that betrayed her
+light movement.
+
+She stopped from time to time, shivering--as if better to taste the
+dramatic solemnity that surrounded them--turned her blonde head a little
+to look at Camors; then cast on him her inspiring smile, placed her hand
+on her heart, as if to say, "I am fearful," and went on.  They reached
+her chamber, where a dim lamp faintly illumined the sombre magnificence,
+the sculptured wainscotings, and the heavy draperies.
+
+The flame on the hearth which flickered up at intervals, threw a bright
+gleam on two or three pictures of the Spanish school, which were the only
+decorations of this sumptuous, but stern-looking apartment.
+
+The Marquise sank as if terrified on a divan near the chimney, and pushed
+with her feet two cushions before her, on which Camors half reclined; she
+then thrust back the thick braids of her hair, and leaned toward her
+lover.
+
+"Do you love me to-day?"  she asked.
+
+The soft breath of her voice was passing over the face of Camors, when
+the door suddenly opened before them.  The General entered.  The Marquise
+and Camors instantly rose to their feet, and standing side by side,
+motionless, gazed upon him.  The General paused near the door.  As he saw
+them a shudder passed over his frame, and his face assumed a livid
+pallor.  For an instant his eye rested on Camors with a stupefied
+surprise and almost bewilderment; then he raised his arms over his head,
+and his hands struck together with a sharp sound.  At this terrible
+moment Madame de Campvallon seized the arm of Camors, and threw him a
+look so profound, supplicating, and tragic, that it alarmed him.
+
+He roughly pushed her from him, crossed his arms, and waited the result.
+
+The General walked slowly toward him.  Suddenly his face became inflamed
+with a purple hue; his lips half opened, as if about to deliver some
+deadly insult.  He advanced rapidly, his hand raised; but after a few
+steps the old man suddenly stopped, beat the air with both hands, as if
+seeking some support, then staggered and fell forward, striking his head
+against the marble mantelpiece, rolled on the carpet, and remained
+motionless.  There was an ominous silence.  A stifled cry from M. de
+Camors broke it.  At the same time he threw himself on his knees by the
+side of the motionless old man, touched first his hand, then his heart.
+He saw that he was dead.  A thin thread of blood trickled down his pale
+forehead where it had struck the marble; but this was only a slight
+wound.  It was not that which had killed him.  It was the treachery of
+those two beings whom he had loved, and who, he believed, loved him.  His
+heart had been broken by the violence of the surprise, the grief, and the
+horror.
+
+One look of Camors told Madame de Campvallon she was a widow.  She threw
+herself on the divan, buried her face in the cushions and sobbed aloud.
+Camors still stood, his back against the mantelpiece, his eyes fixed,
+wrapped in his own thoughts.  He wished in all sincerity of heart that he
+could have awakened the dead and restored him to life.  He had sworn to
+deliver himself up to him without defence, if ever the old man demanded
+it of him for forgotten favors, betrayed friendship, and violated honor.
+Now he had killed him.  If he had not slain him with his own hand, the
+crime was still there, in its most hideous form.  He saw it before him,
+he inhaled its odor--he breathed its blood.  An uneasy glance of the
+Marquise recalled him to himself and he approached her.  They then
+conversed together in whispers, and he hastily explained to her the line
+of conduct she should adopt.
+
+She must summon the servants, say the General had been taken suddenly
+ill, and that on entering her room he had been seized by an apoplectic
+stroke.
+
+It was with some effort that she understood she was to wait long enough
+before giving the alarm to give Camors sufficient time to escape; and
+until then she was to remain in this frightful tete-a-tete, alone with
+the dead.
+
+He pitied her, and decided on leaving the hotel by the apartment of M. de
+Campvallon, which had a private entrance on the street.
+
+The Marquise immediately rang violently several times, and Camors did not
+retire till he heard the sound of hastening feet on the stairs.  The
+apartment of the General communicated with that of his wife by a short
+gallery.  There was a suite of apartments--first a study, then his
+sleeping-room.  M. de Camors traversed this room with feelings we shall
+not attempt to describe and gained the street.  The surgeon testified
+that the General had died from the rupture of a vessel in the heart.
+Two days after the interment took place, at which M. de Camors attended.
+The same evening he left Paris to join his wife, who had gone to Reuilly
+the preceding week.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE FEATHER IN THE BALANCE
+
+One of the sweetest sensations in the world is that of a man who has just
+escaped the fantastic terrors of night mare; and who, awaking, his fore
+head bathed with icy sweat, says to himself, "It was only a dream!"  This
+was, in some degree, the impression which Camors felt on awaking, the
+morning after his arrival at Reuilly, when his first glance fell on the
+sunlight streaming over the foliage, and when he heard beneath his window
+the joyous laugh of his little son.  He, however, was not dreaming; but
+his soul, crushed by the horrible tension of recent emotions, had a
+moment's respite, and drank in, almost without alloy, the new calm that
+surrounded him.  He hastily dressed himself and descended to the garden,
+where his son ran to meet him.
+
+M. de Camors embraced the child with tenderness; and leaning toward him,
+spoke to him in a low voice, and asked after his mother and about his
+amusements, with a singularly soft and sad manner.  Then he let him go,
+and walked with a slow step, breathing the fresh morning air, examining
+the leaves and the flowers with extraordinary interest.  From time to
+time a deep, sad sigh broke from his oppressed chest; he passed his hand
+over his brow as if to efface the importunate images.  He sat down amid
+the quaintly clipped boxwood which ornamented the garden in the antique
+fashion, called his son again to him, held him between his knees,
+interrogating him again, in a low voice, as he had done before; then drew
+him toward him and clasped him tightly for a long time, as if to draw
+into his own heart the innocence and peace of the child's.  Madame de
+Camors surprised him in this gush of feeling, and remained mute with
+astonishment.  He rose immediately and took her hand.
+
+"How well you bring him up!"  he said.  "I thank you for it.  He will be
+worthy of you and of your mother."
+
+She was so surprised at the soft, sad tone of his voice, that she
+replied, stammering with embarrassment, "And worthy of you also, I hope."
+
+"Of me?"  said Camors, whose lips were slightly tremulous.  "Poor child,
+I hope not!" and rapidly withdrew.
+
+Madame de Camors and Madame de Tecle had learned, the previous morning,
+of the death of the General.  The evening of the Count's arrival they did
+not speak to him on the subject, and were cautious not to make any
+allusion to it.  The next day, and the succeeding ones, they practised
+the same reserve, though very far from suspecting the fatal circumstances
+which rendered this souvenir so painful to M. de Camors.  They thought it
+only natural he should be pained at so sudden a catastrophe, and that his
+conscience should be disturbed; but they were astonished when this
+impression prolonged itself from day to day, until it took the appearance
+of a lasting sentiment.
+
+They began to believe that there had arisen between Madame de Campvallon
+and himself, probably occasioned by the General's death, some quarrel
+which had weakened the tie between them.
+
+A journey of twenty-four hours, which he made fifteen days after his
+arrival, was to them a confirmation of the truth they before suspected;
+but his prompt return, his new tastes, which kept him at Reuilly during
+the summer, seemed to them favorable symptoms.
+
+He was singularly sad, pensive, and more inactive than usual in his
+habits.  He took long walks alone.  Sometimes he took his son with him,
+as if by chance.  He sometimes attempted a little timid tenderness with
+his wife; and this awkwardness, on his part, was quite touching.
+
+"Marie," he said to her one day, "you, who are a fairy, wave your wand
+over Reuilly and make of it an island in mid-ocean."
+
+"You say that because you know how to swim," said she, laughing and
+shaking her head; but the heart of the young woman was joyful.
+
+"You embrace me now every moment, my little one," said Madame de Tecle to
+her.  "Is this really all intended for me?"
+
+"My adorable mother," while embracing her again, "I assure you he is
+really courting me again.  Why, I am ignorant; but he is courting me and
+you also, my mother.  Observe it!"
+
+Madame de Tecle did observe it.  In his conversation with her, M. de
+Camors sought, under every pretext, to recall the souvenirs of the past,
+common to them both.  It seemed he wished to link the past with his new
+life; to forget the rest, and pray of them to forget it also.
+
+It was not without fear that these two charming women abandoned
+themselves to their hopes.  They remembered they were in the presence of
+an uncertain person; they little trusted a change so sudden, the reason
+of which they could not comprehend.  They feared it was some passing
+caprice, which would return to them, if they were its dupes, all their
+misfortunes, without the dignity which had hitherto attended them.
+
+They were not the only ones struck by this transformation.  M. des
+Rameures remarked it to them.  The neighboring country people felt in the
+Count's language something new--as it were, a tender humility; they said
+that in other years he had been polite, but this year he was angelic.
+Even the inanimate things, the woods, the trees, the heavens, should have
+borne the same testimony, for he looked at and studied them with a
+benevolent curiosity with which he had never before honored them.
+
+In truth, a profound trouble had invaded him and would not leave him.
+More than once, before this epoch, his soul, his philosophy, his pride,
+had received a rude shock, but he had no less pursued his path, rising
+after every blow, like a lion wounded, but unconquered.  In trampling
+under his feet all moral belief which binds the vulgar, he had reserved
+honor as an inviolable limit.  Then, under the empire of his passions,
+he said to himself that, after all, honor, like all the rest, was
+conventional.  Then he encountered crime--he touched it with his hand--
+horror seized him--and he recoiled.  He rejected with disgust the
+principle which had conducted him there--asked himself what would become
+of human society if it had no other.
+
+The simple truths which he had misunderstood now appeared to him in their
+tranquil splendor.  He could not yet distinguish them clearly; he did not
+try to give them a name, but he plunged with a secret delight into their
+shadows and their peace.  He sought them in the pure heart of his child,
+in the pure love of his young wife, in the daily miracles of nature, in
+the harmonies of the heavens, and probably already in the depths of his
+thoughts--in God.  In the midst of this approach toward a new life he
+hesitated.  Madame de Campvallon was there.  He still loved her vaguely.
+Above all, he could not abandon her without being guilty of a kind of
+baseness.  Terrible struggles agitated him.  Having done so much evil,
+would he now be permitted to do good, and gracefully partake of the joys
+he foresaw?  These ties with the past, his fortune dishonestly acquired,
+his fatal mistress--the spectre of that old man would they permit it?
+
+And we may add, would Providence suffer it?  Not that we should lightly
+use this word Providence, and suspend over M. de Camors a menace of
+supernatural chastisement.  Providence does not intervene in human events
+except through the logic of her eternal laws.  She has only the sanction
+of these laws; and it is for this reason she is feared.  At the end of
+August M. de Camors repaired to the principal town in the district, to
+perform his duties in the Council-General.  The session finished, he paid
+a visit to Madame de Campvallon before returning to Reuilly.  He had
+neglected her a little in the course of the summer, and had only visited
+Campvallon at long intervals, as politeness compelled him.  The Marquise
+wished to keep him for dinner, as she had no guests with her.  She
+pressed him so warmly that, reproaching himself all the time, he
+consented.  He never saw her without pain.  She always brought back to
+him those terrible memories, but also that terrible intoxication.  She
+had never been more beautiful.  Her deep mourning embellished yet more
+her languishing and regal grace; it made her pale complexion yet more
+fair, and it heightened the brilliancy of her look.  She had the air of a
+young tragic queen, or of an allegory of Night.  In the evening an hour
+arrived when the reserve which for some time had marked their relations
+was forgotten.  M. de Camors found himself, as in olden time, at the feet
+of the young Marquise--his eyes gazing into hers, and covering with
+kisses her lovely hands.  She was strange that evening.  She looked at
+him with a wild tenderness, instilling, at pleasure, into his veins the
+poison of burning passion then escaping him, the tears gathering in her
+eyes.  Suddenly, by one of those magical movements of hers, she enveloped
+with her hands the head of her lover, and spoke to him quite low beneath
+the shadow of this perfumed veil.
+
+"We might be so happy!"  she said.
+
+"Are we not so?"  said Camors.
+
+"No!  I at least am not, for you are not all mine, as I am yours.  This
+appears harder, now that I am free.  If you had remained free--when I
+think of it! or if you could become so, it would be heaven!"
+
+"You know that I am not so!  Why speak of it?"
+
+She drew nearer to him, and with her breath, more than with her voice,
+answered:
+
+"Is it impossible?  Tell me!"
+
+"How?"  he demanded.
+
+She did not reply, but her fixed look, caressing and cruel, answered him.
+
+"Speak, then, I beg of you!"  murmured Camors.
+
+"Have you not told me--I have not forgotten it--that we are united by
+ties stronger than all others; that the world and its laws exist no
+longer for us; that there is no other good, no other bad for us, but our
+happiness or our unhappiness?  Well, we are not happy, and if we could be
+so--listen, I have thought well over it!"
+
+Her lips touched the cheek of Camors, and the murmur of her last words
+was lost in her kisses.
+
+Camors roughly repelled her, sprang up, and stood before her.
+
+"Charlotte," he said, sternly, "this is only a trial, I hope; but, trial
+or no, never repeat it--never!  Remember!"
+
+She also quickly drew herself up.
+
+"Ah!  how you love her!"  she cried.  "Yes, you love her, it is she you
+love-I know it, I feel it, and I-I am only the wretched object of your
+pity, or of your caprice.  Very well, go back to her--go and protect her,
+for I swear to you she is in peril!"
+
+He smiled with his haughty irony.
+
+"Let us see your plot," he said.  "So you intend to kill her?"
+
+"If I can!"  she said; and her superb arm was stretched out as if to
+seize a weapon.
+
+"What!  with your own hand?"
+
+"The hand shall be found."
+
+"You are so beautiful at this moment!"  said Camors; "I am dying with the
+desire to fall at your feet.  Acknowledge only that you wished to try me,
+or that you were mad for a moment."
+
+She gave a savage smile.
+
+"Oh!  you fear, my friend," she said, coldly; then raising again her
+voice, which assumed a malignant tone, "You are right, I am not mad, I
+did not wish to try you; I am jealous, I am betrayed, and I shall revenge
+myself--no matter what it costs me--for I care for nothing more in this
+world!--Go, and guard her!"
+
+"Be it so; I go," said Camors.  He immediately left the salon and the
+chateau; he reached the railway station on foot, and that evening arrived
+at Reuilly.
+
+Something terrible there awaited him.
+
+During his absence, Madame de Camors, accompanied by her mother, had gone
+to Paris to make some purchases.  She remained there three days.  She had
+returned only that morning.  He himself arrived late in the evening.  He
+thought he observed some constraint in their reception of him, but he did
+not dwell upon it in the state of mind in which he was.
+
+This is what had occurred: Madame de Camors, during her stay in Paris,
+had gone, as was her custom, to visit her aunt, Madame de la Roche-Jugan.
+Their intercourse had always been very constrained.  Neither their
+characters nor their religion coincided.  Madame de Camors contented
+herself with not liking her aunt, but Madame de la Roche-Jugan hated her
+niece.  She found a good occasion to prove this, and did not lose it.
+They had not seen each other since the General's death.  This event,
+which should have caused Madame de la Roche-Jugan to reproach herself,
+had simply exasperated her.  Her bad action had recoiled upon herself.
+The death of M. Campvallon had finally destroyed her last hopes, which
+she had believed she could have founded on the anger and desperation of
+the old man.  Since that time she was animated against her nephew and the
+Marquise with the rage of one of the Furies.  She learned through Vautrot
+that M. de Camors had been in the chamber of Madame de Campvallon the
+night of the General's death.  On this foundation of truth she did not
+fear to frame the most odious suspicions; and Vautrot, baffled like her
+in his vengeance and in his envy, had aided her.  A few sinister rumors,
+escaping apparently from this source, had even crept at this time into
+Parisian society.
+
+M. de Camors and Madame de Campvallon, suspecting that they had been
+betrayed a second time by Madame de la Roche-Jugan, had broken with her;
+and she could presume that, should she present herself at the door of the
+Marquise, orders would have been given not to admit her.  This affront
+made her angrier still.  She was still a prey to the violence of her
+wrath when she received a visit from Madame de Camors.  She affected to
+make the General's death the theme of conversation, shed a few tears over
+her old friend, and kissed the hand of her niece with a burst of
+tenderness.
+
+"My poor little thing!"  she said to her; "it is for you also I weep--for
+you will yet be more unhappy than heretofore, if that can be possible."
+
+"I do not understand you, Madame," answered the young woman, coldly.
+
+"If you do not understand me, so much the better," replied Madame de la
+Roche-Jugan, with a shade of bitterness; then, after a moment's pause--"
+Listen, my dear!  this is a duty of conscience which I comply with.  You
+see, an honest creature like you merits a better fate; and your mother
+too, who is also a dupe.  That man would deceive the good God.  In the
+name of my family, I feel bound to ask your pardon for both of them."
+
+"I repeat, Madame, that I do not understand you."
+
+"But it is impossible, my child--come!--it is impossible that all this
+time you have suspected nothing."
+
+"I suspect nothing, Madame," said Madame de Camors, "because I know all."
+
+"Ah!"  continued Madame de la Roche-Jugan, dryly; "if this be so, I have
+nothing to say.  But there are persons, in that case, who can accommodate
+their consciences to very strange things."
+
+"That is what I thought a moment ago, Madame," said the young woman,
+rising.
+
+"As you wish, my dear; but I speak in your own interest, and I shall
+reproach myself for not having spoken to you more clearly.  I know my
+nephew better than you will ever know him; and the other also.
+Notwithstanding you say so, you do not know all; let me tell you.  The
+General died very suddenly; and after him, it is your turn!  Be very
+careful, my poor child!"
+
+"Oh, Madame!"  cried the young woman, becoming ghastly pale; "I shall
+never see you again while I live!"  She left on the instant-ran home, and
+there found her mother.  She repeated to her the terrible words she had
+just heard, and her mother tried to calm her; but she herself was
+disturbed.  She went immediately to Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and
+supplicated her to have pity on them and to retract the abominable
+innuendo she had thrown out, or to explain it more fully.  She made her
+understand that she would inform M. de Camors of the affair in case of
+need, and that he would hold his cousin Sigismund responsible.  Terrified
+in her turn, Madame de la Roche-Jugan judged the best method was to
+destroy M. de Camors in the estimation of Madame de Tecle.  She related
+what had been told her by Vautrot, being careful not to compromise
+herself in the recital.  She informed her of the presence of M. de Camors
+at the General's house the night of his death.  She told her of the
+reports that were circulated, and mingling calumny with truth, redoubling
+at the same time her affection, her caresses, and her tears, she
+succeeded in giving Madame de Tecle such an estimate of the character of
+M. de Camors, that there were no suspicions or apprehensions which the
+poor woman, from that moment, did not consider legitimate as connected
+with him.
+
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan finally offered to send Vautrot to her, that she
+might herself interrogate him.  Madame de Tecle, affecting an incredulity
+and a tranquillity she did not feel, refused and withdrew.
+
+On her returning to her daughter, she forced herself to deceive her as
+to the impressions she had received, but she did not succeed; for her
+anxious face belied her reassuring words.  They separated the following
+night, mutually concealing the trouble and distress of their souls; but
+accustomed so long to think, feel, and suffer together, they met, so to
+speak, in the same reflections, the same reasonings, and in the same
+terrors.  They went over, in their memories, all the incidents of the
+life of Camors--all his faults; and, under the shadow of the monstrous
+action imputed to him, his faults took a criminal character which they
+were surprised they had not seen before.  They discovered a series and a
+sequence in his designs, all of which were imputed to him as crimes--even
+his good actions.  Thus his conduct during the last few months, his
+strange ways, his fancy for his child and for his wife, his assiduous
+tenderness toward her, were nothing more than the hypocritical meditation
+of a new crime--a mask which he was preparing in advance.
+
+What was to be done?  What kind of life was it possible to live in
+common, under the weight of such thoughts?  What present--what future?
+These thoughts bewildered them.  Next day Camors could not fail remarking
+the singular change in their countenances in his presence; but he knew
+that his servant, without thinking of harm, had spoken of his visit to
+Madame de Campvallon, and he attributed the coldness and embarrassment of
+the two women to this fact.  He was less disquieted at this, because he
+was resolved to keep them entirely safe.  As a result of his reflections
+during the night, he had determined to break off forever his intrigue
+with Madame de Campvallon.  For this rupture, which he had made it a
+point of honor not to provoke, Madame de Campvallon had herself furnished
+him a sufficient pretext.
+
+The criminal thought she had suggested was, he knew, only a feint to test
+him, but it was enough to justify his abandonment of her.  As to the
+violent and menacing words the Marquise had used, he held them of little
+value, though at times the remembrance of them troubled him.
+Nevertheless, for many years he had not felt his heart so light.  This
+wicked tie once broken, it seemed as if he had resumed, with his liberty,
+his youth and virtue.  He walked and played a part of the day with his
+little son.  After dinner, just as night fell, clear and pure, he
+proposed to Madame de Camors a tete-a-tete excursion in the woods.  He
+spoke to her of a view which had struck him shortly before on such a
+night, and which would please, he said laughingly, her romantic taste.
+
+He would not permit himself to be surprised at the disinclination she
+manifested, at the disquietude which her face indicated, or at the rapid
+glance she exchanged with her mother.
+
+The same thought, and that a most fearful one; entered the minds of both
+these unfortunate women at the same moment.
+
+They were still under the impression of the shock which had so weakened
+their nerves, and the brusque proposition of M. de Camors, so contrary to
+his usual habits-the hour, the night, and the solitary walk--had suddenly
+awakened in their brains the sinister images which Madame de la Roche-
+Jugan had laid there.  Madame de Camors, however, with an air of
+resolution the circumstances did not seem entitled to demand, prepared
+immediately to go out, then followed her husband from the house, leaving
+her little son in charge of her mother.  They had only to cross the
+garden to find themselves on the edge of the wood which almost touched
+their dwelling, and which stretched to the old fields inherited from the
+Comte de Tecle.  The intention of Camors in seeking this tete-a-tete was
+to confide to his wife the decisive determination he had taken of
+delivering up to her absolutely and without reserve his heart and life,
+and to enjoy in these solitudes his first taste of true happiness.
+Surprised at the cold distraction with which his young wife replied to
+the affectionate gayety of his language, he redoubled his efforts to
+bring their conversation to a tone of more intimacy and confidence.
+While stopping at intervals to point out to her some effects of light and
+shadow in their walk, he began to question her on her recent trip to
+Paris, and on the persons she had seen there.  She named Madame Jaubert
+and a few others; then, lowering her voice against her will, mentioned
+Madame de la Roche-Jugan.
+
+"That one," said Camors, "you could very well have dispensed with.  I
+forgot to warn you that I no longer recognize her."
+
+"Why?"  asked she, timidly.
+
+"Because she is a bad woman," said Camors.  "When we are a little more
+intimate with each other, you and I," he added, laughing, "I shall edify
+you on this character, I shall tell you all--all, understand."
+
+There was so much of nature, and even of goodness in the accent with
+which he pronounced these words, that the Countess felt her heart half
+comforted from the oppression which had weighed it down.  She gave
+herself up with more abandon to the gracious advances of her husband and
+to the slight incidents of her walk.
+
+The phantoms disappeared little by little from her mind, and she began to
+say to herself that she had been the sport of a bad dream, and of a true
+madness, when a singular change in her husband's face renewed all her
+terrors.  M. de Camors, in his turn, had become absent and visibly
+preoccupied with some grave care.  He spoke with an effort, made half
+replies, meditated; then stopped quickly to look around him, like a
+frightened child.  These strange ways, so different from his former
+temper, alarmed the young woman, the more so as she just then found
+herself in the most distant part of the wood.
+
+There was an extraordinary similarity in the thoughts which occupied them
+both.  At the moment when Madame Camors was trembling for fear near her
+husband, he was trembling for her.
+
+He thought he detected that they were followed; at different times he
+thought he heard in the thicket the cracking of branches, rattling of
+leaves, and finally the sound of stealthy steps.  These noises always
+ceased on his stopping, and began again the moment he resumed his walk.
+He thought, a moment later, he saw the shadow of a man pass rapidly among
+the underwood behind them.  The idea of some woodman came first to his
+mind, but he could not reconcile this with the persistence with which
+they were followed.
+
+He finally had no doubt that they were dogged--but by whom?  The repeated
+menaces of Madame de Campvallon against the life of Madame de Camors, the
+passionate and unbridled character of this woman, soon presented itself
+to his thoughts, suggested this mysterious pursuit, and awakened these
+frightful suspicions.
+
+He did not imagine for a moment that the Marquise would charge herself
+personally with the infliction of her vengeance; but she had said--he
+then remembered--that the hand would be found.  She was rich enough to
+find it, and this hand might now be here.
+
+He did not wish to alarm his wife by calling her attention to this
+spectre, which he believed at her side, but he could not hide from her
+his agitation, which every movement of his caused her to construe as
+falsely as cruelly.
+
+"Marie," he said, "let us walk a little faster, I beg of you!  I am
+cold."
+
+He quickened his steps, resolved to return to the chateau by the public
+road, which was bordered with houses.
+
+When he reached the border of the woods, although he thought he still
+heard at intervals the sound which had alarmed him, he reassured himself
+and resumed his flow of spirits as if a little ashamed even of his panic.
+He stopped the Countess to look at the pretext of this excursion.  This
+was the rocky wall of the deep excavation of a marl-pit, long since
+abandoned.  The arbutus-trees of fantastic shape which covered the summit
+of these rocks, the pendant vines, the sombre ivy which carpeted the
+cliffs, the gleaming white stones, the vague reflections in the stagnant
+pool at the bottom of the pit, the mysterious light of the moon, made a
+scene of wild beauty.
+
+The ground in the neighborhood of the marl-pit was so irregular, and the
+thorny underbrush so thick, that when pedestrians wished to reach the
+nearest highway they, were compelled either to make a long detour or to
+cross the deepest part of the excavation by means of the trunks of two
+great trees, which had been cut in half, lashed together, and thrown
+across the chasm.  Thus they formed a crude bridge, affording a passage
+across the deep hollow and adding to the picturesque aspect of this
+romantic spot.
+
+Madame de Camors never had seen anything like this peculiar bridge, which
+had been laid recently at her husband's orders.  After they had gazed in
+silence a moment into the depths of the marl-pit, Camors called his
+wife's attention to the unique construction.
+
+"Do you intend to cross that?"  she asked, briefly.
+
+"Yes, if you are not afraid," said Camors; "I shall be close beside you,
+you know."
+
+He saw that she hesitated, and, looking at her closely in the moonlight,
+he thought her face was strangely pale, and could not refrain from
+saying:
+
+"I believed that you had more courage."
+
+She hesitated no longer, but stepped upon the dangerous bridge.  In spite
+of herself, she turned her head half around, in a backward glance, and
+her steady step faltered.  Suddenly she tottered.  M. de Camors sprang
+forward, and, in the agitation of the moment, seized her in an almost
+violent grasp.  The unhappy woman uttered a piercing shriek, made a
+gesture as if to defend herself, repelling his touch; then, running
+wildly across the bridge, she rushed into the woods.  M. de Camors,
+astounded, alarmed, not knowing how to interpret his wife's strange
+conduct, immediately followed her.  He found her a short distance beyond
+the bridge, leaning against the first tree she had been able to reach.
+She turned to face.  him, with an expression of mingled terror and
+menace, and as he approached, she shot forth the single word:
+
+"Coward!"
+
+He stared at her in sheer amazement.  At that moment there was a sound of
+hurried footsteps; a shadowy form glided toward them from the depth of
+the thicket, and the next instant Camors recognized Madame de Tecle.  She
+ran, dishevelled and breathless, toward her daughter, seized her by the
+hand and, drawing herself up, said to Camors:
+
+"If you kill one of us, kill both!"
+
+He understood the mystery in a flash.  A stifled cry escaped him; for an
+instant he buried his face in his hands; then; flinging out his arms in a
+gesture of despair, he said:
+
+"So you took me for a murderer!"
+
+There was a moment of dead silence.
+
+"Well!"  he cried, stamping his foot with sudden violence, "why do you
+stay here, then?  Run!  Fly!  Save yourselves from me!"
+
+Overcome with terror, the two women fled, the mother dragging her
+daughter.  The next moment they had disappeared in the darkness of the
+woods.
+
+Camors remained in that lonely spot many hours, without being aware of
+the passage of time.  At intervals he paced feverishly to and fro along
+the narrow strip of land between the woods and the bridge; then, stopping
+short, with fixed eyes, he became lost in thought, and stood as
+motionless as the trunk of the tree against which he leaned.  If, as we
+hope, there is a Divine hand which measures justly our sorrows according
+to our sins, the unhappy man, in this dark hour, must have rendered his
+account.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE CURTAIN FALLS
+
+The next morning the Marquise de Campvallon was strolling beside a large
+circular sheet of water which ornamented the lower part of her park, the
+metallic gleam of the rippling waves being discernible from afar through
+the branches of the surrounding trees.
+
+She walked slowly along the bank of the lake, her head bowed, and the
+long skirt of her mourning-robe sweeping the grass.  Two large and
+dazzlingly white swans, watching their mistress eagerly, in expectation
+of receiving their usual titbits from her hands, swam close to the bank,
+following her steps as if escorting her.
+
+Suddenly the Comte de Camors appeared before her.  She had believed that
+she never should see him again.  She raised her head quickly and pressed
+one hand to her heart.
+
+"Yes, it is I!"  said Camors.  "Give me your hand."
+
+She gave it to him.
+
+"You were right, Charlotte," he said, after a moment of silence.  "Ties
+like ours can not be broken.  I have reflected on everything.  I was
+seized with a momentary cowardice, for which I have reproached myself
+bitterly, and for which, moreover, I have been sufficiently punished.
+But I come to you to ask your forgiveness."
+
+The Marquise led him tenderly into the deep shadow of the great plane-
+trees that surrounded the lake; she knelt before him with theatric grace,
+and fixed on him her swimming eyes.  She covered his head with kisses.
+He raised her and pressed her to his heart.
+
+"But you do not wish that crime to be committed?"  he said in a low
+voice.
+
+She bent her head with mournful indecision.
+
+"For that matter," he added, bitterly, "it would only make us worthier of
+each other; for, as to myself, they have already believed me capable of
+it."
+
+He took her arm and recounted to her briefly the scene of the night
+before.
+
+He told her he had not returned home, and never should.  This was the
+result of his mournful meditations.  To attempt an explanation with those
+who had so mortally outraged him--to open to them the depth of his heart
+--to allude to the criminal thought they had accused him of--he had
+repelled with horror, the evening before, when proposed by another.  He
+thought of all this; but this humiliation--if he could have so abased
+himself--would have been useless.  How could he hope to conquer by these
+words the distrust capable of creating such suspicions?
+
+He confusedly divined the origin, and understood that this distrust,
+envenomed by remembrance of the past, was incurable.
+
+The sentiment of the irreparable, of revolted pride, indignation, and
+even injustice, had shown him but one refuge, and it was this to which he
+had fled.
+
+The Comtesse de Camors and Madame de Tecle learned only through their
+servants and the public of the removal of the Count to a country-house he
+had rented near the Chateau Campvallon.  After writing ten letters--all
+of which he had burned--he had decided to maintain an absolute silence.
+They sometimes trembled at the thought he might take away his son.  He
+thought of it; but it was a kind of vengeance that he disdained.
+
+This move, which publicly proclaimed the relations existing between M. de
+Camors and the Marquise, made a sensation in the Parisian world, where it
+was soon known.  It revived again the strange recollections and rumors
+that all remembered.  Camors heard of them, but despised them.
+
+His pride, which was then exasperated by a savage irritation, was
+gratified at defying public opinion, which had been so easily duped
+before.  He knew there was no situation one could not impose upon the
+world providing one had wealth and audacity.  From this day he resumed
+energetically the love of his life, his habits, his labors, and his
+thoughts for the future.  Madame de Campvallon was the confidante of all
+his projects, and added her own care to them; and both occupied
+themselves in organizing in advance their mutual existence, hereafter
+blended forever.  The personal fortune of M. de Camors, united to that of
+the Marquise, left no limits to the fancies which their imagination could
+devise.  They arranged to live separately at Paris, though the Marquise's
+salon should be common to both; but their double influence would shine at
+the same time, and they would be the social centre of a sovereign
+influence.  The Marquise would reign by the splendor of her person over
+the society of letters, art, and politics.  Camors would there find the
+means of action which could not fail to accomplish the high destiny to
+which his talent and his ambition called him.
+
+This was the life that had appeared to them in the origin of their
+liaison as a sort of ideal of human happiness--that of two superior
+beings, who proudly shared, above the masses, all the pleasures of earth,
+the intoxication of passion, the enjoyment of intellectual strength, the
+satisfaction of pride, and the emotions of power.  The eclat of such a
+life would constitute the vengeance of Camors, and force to repent
+bitterly those who had dared to misunderstand him.  The recent mourning
+of the Marquise commanded them, notwithstanding, to adjourn the
+realization of their dream, if they did not wish to wound the conscience
+of the public.  They felt it, and resolved to travel for a few months
+before settling in Paris.  The time that passed in their preparations for
+the future, and in arrangements for this voyage, was to Madame de
+Campvallon the sweetest period of her life.  She finally tasted to the
+full an intimacy, so long troubled, of which the charm, in truth, was
+very great; for her lover, as if to make her forget his momentary
+desertion, was prodigal in the effusion of his tenderness.  He brought to
+private studies, as well as to their common schemes, an ardor, a fire,
+which displayed itself in his face, in his eyes, and which seemed yet
+more to heighten his manly beauty.  It often happened, after quitting the
+Marquise in the evening, that he worked very late at home, sometimes
+until morning.  One night, shortly before the day fixed for their
+departure, a private servant of the Count, who slept in the room above
+his master's, heard a noise which alarmed him.
+
+He went down in great haste, and found M. de Camors stretched apparently
+lifeless on the floor at the foot of his desk.  The servant, whose name
+was Daniel, had all his master's confidence, and he loved him with that
+singular affection which strong natures often inspire in their inferiors.
+
+He sent for Madame de Campvallon, who soon came.  M. de Camors,
+recovering from his fainting-fit, was very pale, and was walking across
+the room when she entered.  He seemed irritated at seeing her, and
+rebuked his servant sharply for his ill-advised zeal.
+
+He said he had only had a touch of vertigo, to which he was subject.
+Madame de Campvallon soon retired, having first supplicated him not to
+overwork himself again.  When he came to her next day, she could not help
+being surprised at the dejection stamped on his face, which she
+attributed to the attack he had had the night before.  But when she spoke
+of their approaching departure, she was astonished, and even alarmed by
+his reply:
+
+"Let us defer it a little, I beg of you," he said.  "I do not feel in a
+state fit for travelling."
+
+Days passed; he made no further allusion to the voyage.  He was serious,
+silent, and cold.  The active ardor, almost feverish, which had animated
+until then his life, his speech, his eyes, was suddenly quenched.  One
+symptom which disquieted the Marquise above all was the absolute idleness
+to which he now abandoned himself.
+
+He left her in the evening at an early hour.  Daniel told the Marquise
+that the Count worked no longer; that he heard him pacing up and down the
+greater part of the night.  At the same time his health failed visibly.
+The Marquise ventured once to interrogate him.  As they were both walking
+one day in the park, she said:
+
+"You are hiding something from me.  You suffer, my friend.  What is the
+cause?"
+
+"There is nothing."
+
+"I pray you tell me!"
+
+"Nothing is the matter with me," he replied, petulantly.
+
+"Is it your son that you regret?"
+
+"I regret nothing."  After a few steps taken in silence--" When I think,"
+he said, quickly, "that there is one person in the world who considers me
+a coward--for I hear always that word in my ear--and who treated me like
+a coward, and who believed it when it was said, and believes it still!
+If it had been a man, it would be easy, but it was a woman."
+
+After this sudden explosion he was silent.
+
+"Very well; what do you desire?"  said the Marquise, with vexation.  "Do
+you wish that I should go and tell her the truth--tell her that you were
+ready to defend her against me--that you love her, and hate me?  If it be
+that you wish, say so.  I believe if this life continues I shall be
+capable of doing anything!"
+
+"Do not you also outrage me!  Dismiss me, if that will give you pleasure;
+but I love you only.  My pride bleeds, that is all; and I give you my
+word of honor that if you ever affront me by going to justify me, I shall
+never in my life see you or her.  Embrace me!"  and he pressed her to his
+heart.
+
+She was calm for a few hours.
+
+The house he occupied was about to be taken again by its proprietor.  The
+middle of September approached, and it was the time when the Marquise was
+in the habit of returning to Paris.  She proposed to M. de Camors to
+occupy the chateau during the few days he purposed passing in the
+country.  He accepted; but whenever she spoke of returning to Paris:
+
+"Why so soon?"  he would say; "are we not very well here?"
+
+A little later she reminded him that the session of the Chamber was about
+to open.  He made his health a pretext for delay, saying that he felt
+weak and wished to send in his resignation as deputy.  She induced him
+only by her urgent prayer to content himself with asking leave of
+absence.
+
+"But you, my beloved!"  he said, "I am condemning you to a sad
+existence!"
+
+"With you," she replied, "I am happy everywhere and always!"
+
+It was not true that she was happy, but it was true that she loved him
+and was devoted to him.  There was no suffering she would not have
+resigned herself to, no sacrifice she would not make, were it for him.
+
+From this moment the prospect of worldly sovereignty, which she thought
+she had touched with her hand, escaped her.  She had a presentiment of a
+melancholy future of solitude, of renunciation, of secret tears; but near
+him grief became a fete.  One knows with what rapidity life passes with
+those who busy themselves without distraction in some profound grief--the
+days themselves are long, but the succession of them is rapid and
+imperceptible.  It was thus that the months and then the seasons
+succeeded one another, for Camors and the Marquise, with a monotony that
+left hardly any trace on their thoughts.  Their daily relations were
+marked, on the part of the Count with an invariably cold and distant
+courtesy, and very often silence; on the part of the Marquise by an
+attentive tenderness and a constrained grief.  Every day they rode out on
+horseback, both clad in black, sympathetic by their beauty and their
+sadness, and surrounded in the country by distant respect.  About the
+beginning of the ensuing winter Madame de Campvallon experienced a
+serious disquietude.  Although M. de Camors never complained, it was
+evident his health was gradually failing.  A dark and almost clayey tint
+covered his thin cheeks, and spread nearly to the whites of his eyes.
+The Marquise showed some emotion on perceiving it, and persuaded him to
+consult a physician.  The physician perceived symptoms of chronic
+debility.  He did not think it dangerous, but recommended a season at
+Vichy, a few hygienic precautions, and absolute repose of mind and body.
+
+When the Marquise proposed to Camors this visit to Vichy, he only
+shrugged his shoulders without reply.
+
+A few days after, Madame de Campvallon on entering the stable one
+morning, saw Medjid, the favorite mare of Camors, white with foam,
+panting and exhausted.  The groom explained, with some awkwardness,
+the condition of the animal, by a ride the Count had taken that morning.
+The Marquise had recourse to Daniel, of whom she made a confidant,
+and having questioned him, drew out the acknowledgment that for some time
+his master had been in the habit of going out in the evening and not
+returning until morning.  Daniel was in despair with these nightly
+wanderings, which he said greatly fatigued his master.  He ended by
+confessing to Madame de Campvallon the goal of his excursions.
+
+The Comtesse de Camors, yielding to considerations the details of which
+would not be interesting, had continued to live at Reuilly since her
+husband had abandoned her.  Reuilly was distant twelve leagues from
+Campvallon, which could be made shorter by a crosscut.  M. de Camors did
+not hesitate to pass over this distance twice in the same night, to give
+himself the emotion of breathing for a few minutes the same air with his
+wife and child.
+
+Daniel had accompanied him two or three times, but the Count generally
+went alone.  He left his horse in the wood, and approached as near as he
+could without risking discovery; and, hiding himself like a malefactor
+behind the shadows of the trees, he watched the windows, the lights, the
+house, the least signs of those dear beings, from whom an eternal abyss
+had divided him.
+
+The Marquise, half frightened, half irritated, by an oddity which seemed
+to border on madness, pretended to be ignorant of it.  But these two
+spirits were too accustomed to each other, day by day, to be able to hide
+anything.  He knew she was aware of his weakness, and seemed no longer to
+care to make a mystery of it.
+
+One evening in the month of July, he left on horseback in the afternoon,
+and did not return for dinner.  He arrived at the woods of Reuilly at the
+close of the day, as he had premeditated.  He entered the garden with his
+usual precaution, and, thanks to his knowledge of the habits of the
+household, he could approach, without being noticed, the pavilion where
+the Countess's chamber was situated, and which was also that of his son.
+This chamber, by a particular arrangement of the house, was elevated at
+the side of the court by the height of an entresol, but was level with
+the garden.  One of the windows was open, owing to the heat of the
+evening.  Camors hid himself behind the shutters, which were half closed,
+and gazed eagerly into the chamber.
+
+He had not seen for two years either his wife, his child, or Madame de
+Tecle.  He now saw all three there.  Madame de Tecle was working near the
+chimney.  Her face was unchanged.  She had the same youthful look, but
+her hair was as white, as snow.  Madame de Camors was sitting on a couch
+nearly in front of the window and undressing her son, at the same time
+talking to and caressing him.
+
+The child, at a sign, knelt down at his mother's feet in his light night-
+garments, and while she held his joined hands in her own, he began in a
+loud voice his evening prayers.  She whispered him from time to time a
+word that escaped him.  This prayer, composed of a number of phrases
+adapted to a youthful mind, terminated with these words: "O God!  be good
+and merciful to my mother, my grandmother, to me--and above all, O God,
+to my unfortunate father."  He pronounced these words with childish
+haste, but under a serious look from his mother, he repeated them
+immediately, with some emotion, as a child who repeats the inflection of
+a voice which has been taught him.
+
+Camors turned suddenly and retired noiselessly, leaving the garden by the
+nearest gate.  A fixed idea tortured him.  He wished to see his son--to
+speak to him--to embrace him, and to press him to his heart.  After that,
+he cared for little.
+
+He remembered they had formerly the habit of taking the child to the
+dairy every morning to give him a cup of milk.  He hoped they had
+continued this custom.  Morning arrived, and soon came the hour for which
+he waited.  He hid himself in the walk which led to the farm.  He heard
+the noise of feet, of laughter, and of joyous cries, and his son suddenly
+appeared running in advance.  He was a charming little boy of five or six
+years, of a graceful and proud mien.  On perceiving M. de Camors in the
+middle of the walk he stopped, he hesitated at this unknown or half-
+forgotten face; but the tender and half-supplicating smile of Camors
+reassured him.
+
+"Monsieur!"  he said, doubtfully.
+
+Camors opened his arms and bent as if to kneel before him.
+
+"Come and embrace me, I beg of you," he murmured.
+
+The child had already advanced smiling, when the woman who was following
+him, who was his old nurse, suddenly appeared.  'She made a gesture of
+fright:
+
+"Your father!"  she said, in a stifled voice.
+
+At these words the child uttered a cry of terror, rushed back to the
+nurse, pressed against her, and regarded his father with frightened eyes.
+
+The nurse took him by the arm, and earned him off in great haste.
+
+M. de Camors did not weep.  A frightful contraction distorted the corners
+of his mouth, and exaggerated the thinness of his cheeks.  He had two or
+three shudderings as if seized with sudden fever.  He slowly passed his
+hand over his forehead, sighed profoundly, and departed.
+
+Madame de Campvallon knew nothing of this sad scene, but she saw its
+consequences; and she herself felt them bitterly.  The character of M. de
+Camors, already so changed, became after this unrecognizable.  He showed
+her no longer even the cold politeness he had manifested for her up to
+that period.  He exhibited a strange antipathy toward her.  He fled from
+her.  She perceived he avoided even touching her hand.
+
+They saw each other rarely now.  The health of Camors did not admit of
+his taking regular meals.  These two desolate existences offered then,
+in the midst of the almost royal state which surrounded them, a spectacle
+of pity.
+
+In this magnificent park--across these beautiful gardens, with great
+vases of marble--under long arcades of verdure peopled with more statues-
+both wandered separately, like two sad shadows, meeting sometimes but
+never speaking.
+
+One day, near the end of September, Camors did not descend from his
+apartment.  Daniel told the Marquise he had given orders to let no one
+enter.
+
+"Not even me?"  she said.  He bent his head mournfully.  She insisted.
+
+"Madame, I should lose my place!"
+
+The Count persisted in this mania of absolute seclusion.  She was
+compelled from this moment to content herself with the news she obtained
+from his servant.  M. de Camors was not bedridden.  He passed his time in
+a sad reverie, lying on his divan.  He got up at intervals, wrote a few
+lines, then lay down again.  His weakness appeared great, though he did
+not complain of any suffering.
+
+After two or three weeks, the Marquise read in the features of Daniel a
+more marked disquietude than usual.  He supplicated her to call in the
+country physician who had once before seen him.  It was so decided.
+The unfortunate woman, when the physician was shown into the Count's
+apartment, leaned against the door listening in agony.  She thought she
+heard the voice of Camors loudly raised, then the noise ceased.
+
+The doctor, when departing, simply said to her: "Madame, his sad case
+appears to me serious--but not hopeless.  I did not wish to press him
+to-day, but he allows me to return tomorrow."
+
+In the night which followed, at two o'clock, Madame de Campvallon heard
+some one calling her, and recognized the voice of Daniel.  She rose
+immediately, threw a mantle around her, and admitted him.
+
+"Madame," he said, "Monsieur le Comte asks for you," and burst into
+tears.
+
+"Mon Dieu! what is the matter?"
+
+"Come, Madame--you must hasten!"
+
+She accompanied him immediately.  From the moment she put her foot in the
+chamber, she could not deceive herself--Death was there.  Crushed by
+sorrow, this existence, so full, so proud, so powerful, was about to
+terminate.  The head of Camors, turned on the pillow, seemed already to
+have assumed a death-like immobility.  His beautiful features, sharpened
+by suffering, took the rigid outline of sculpture; his eye alone yet
+lived and looked at her.
+
+She approached him hastily and wished to seize the hand resting on the
+sheet.
+
+He withdrew it.  She gave a despairing groan.  He continued to look
+fixedly at her.  She thought he was trying to speak, but could not; but
+his eyes spoke.  They addressed to her some request, at the same time
+with an imperious though supplicating expression, which she doubtless
+understood; for she said aloud, with an accent full of sadness and
+tenderness:
+
+"I promise it to you."
+
+He appeared to make a painful effort, and his look indicated a large
+sealed letter lying on the bed.  She took it, and read on the envelope-
+"To my son."
+
+"I promise you," she said, again, falling on her knees, and moistening
+the sheet with her tears.
+
+He extended his hand toward her.  "Thanks!"  was all he said.  Her tears
+flowed faster.  She set her lips on this hand already cold.  When she
+raised her head, she saw at the same instant the eyes of Camors slightly
+moist, rolling wildly--then extinguished!  She uttered a cry, threw
+herself on the bed, and kissed madly those eyes still open--yet void of
+light forever!
+
+Thus ended Camors, who was a great sinner, but nevertheless a MAN!
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A man never should kneel unless sure of rising a conqueror
+One of those pious persons who always think evil
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors, v3
+by Octave Feuillet
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A man never should kneel unless sure of rising a conqueror
+A defensive attitude is never agreeable to a man
+Bad to fear the opinion of people one despises
+Believing that it is for virtue's sake alone such men love them
+Camors refused, hesitated, made objections, and consented
+Confounding progress with discord, liberty with license
+Contempt for men is the beginning of wisdom
+Cried out, with the blunt candor of his age
+Dangers of liberty outweighed its benefits
+Demanded of him imperatively--the time of day
+Determined to cultivate ability rather than scrupulousness
+Disenchantment which follows possession
+Do not get angry.  Rarely laugh, and never weep
+Every one is the best judge of his own affairs
+Every road leads to Rome--and one as surely as another
+Every cause that is in antagonism with its age commits suicide
+God--or no principles!
+Have not that pleasure, it is useless to incur the penalties
+He is charming, for one always feels in danger near him
+Inconstancy of heart is the special attribute of man
+Intemperance of her zeal and the acrimony of her bigotry
+Knew her danger, and, unlike most of them, she did not love it
+Man, if he will it, need not grow old: the lion must
+Never can make revolutions with gloves on
+Once an excellent remedy, is a detestable regimen
+One of those pious persons who always think evil
+Pleasures of an independent code of morals
+Police regulations known as religion
+Principles alone, without faith in some higher sanction
+Property of all who are strong enough to stand it
+Put herself on good terms with God, in case He should exist
+Semel insanivimus omnes.'  (every one has his madness)
+Slip forth from the common herd, my son, think for yourself
+Suspicion that he is a feeble human creature after all!
+There will be no more belief in Christ than in Jupiter
+Ties that become duties where we only sought pleasures
+Truth is easily found.  I shall read all the newspapers
+Two persons who desired neither to remember nor to forget
+Whether in this world one must be a fanatic or nothing
+Whole world of politics and religion rushed to extremes
+With the habit of thinking, had not lost the habit of laughing
+You can not make an omelette without first breaking the eggs
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors, entire
+by Octave Feuillet
+
diff --git a/old/im33b10.zip b/old/im33b10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99a6fd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/im33b10.zip