"If so, come and dine with me a few days hence, and I'll serve up d'Arthez.Our man of genius is by nature, it seems, a savage; he fears women, and has never loved! Make your plans on that.He is all intellect, and so simple that he'll mislead you into feeling no distrust.But his penetration, which is wholly retrospective, acts later, and frustrates calculation.You may hoodwink him to-day, but to-morrow nothing can dupe him.""Ah!" cried the princess, "if I were only thirty years old what amusement I might have with him! The one enjoyment I have lacked up to the present is a man of intellect to fool.I have had only partners, never adversaries.Love was a mere game instead of being a battle.""Dear princess, admit that I am very generous; for, after all, you know!--charity begins at home."The two women looked at each other, laughing, and clasped hands in a friendly way.Assuredly they both knew each other's secrets, and this was not the first man nor the first service that one had given to the other; for sincere and lasting friendships between women of the world need to be cemented by a few little crimes.When two friends are liable to kill each other reciprocally, and see a poisoned dagger in each other's hand, they present a touching spectacle of harmony, which is never troubled, unless, by chance, one of them is careless enough to drop her weapon.
So, eight days later, a little dinner such as are given to intimates by verbal invitation only, during which the doors are closed to all other visitors, took place at Madame d'Espard's house.Five persons were invited,--Emile Blondet and Madame de Montcornet, Daniel d'Arthez, Rastignac, and the Princesse de Cadignan.Counting the mistress of the house, there were as many men as women.
Chance never exerted itself to make wiser preparations than those which opened the way to a meeting between d'Arthez and Madame de Cadignan.The princess is still considered one of the chief authorities on dress, which, to women, is the first of arts.On this occasion she wore a gown of blue velvet with flowing white sleeves, and a tulle guimpe, slightly frilled and edged with blue, covering the shoulders, and rising nearly to the throat, as we see in several of Raffaele's portraits.Her maid had dressed her hair with white heather, adroitly placed among its blond cascades, which were one of the great beauties to which she owed her celebrity.
Certainly Diane did not look to be more than twenty-five years old.
Four years of solitude and repose had restored the freshness of her complexion.Besides, there are moments when the desire to please gives an increase of beauty to women.The will is not without influence on the variations of the face.If violent emotions have the power to yellow the white tones of persons of bilious and melancholy temperament, and to green lymphatic faces, shall we not grant to desire, hope, and joy, the faculty of clearing the skin, giving brilliancy to the eye, and brightening the glow of beauty with a light as jocund as that of a lovely morning? The celebrated faintness of the princess had taken on a ripeness which now made her seem more august.
At this moment of her life, impressed by her many vicissitudes and by serious reflections, her noble, dreamy brow harmonized delightfully with the slow, majestic glance of her blue eyes.It was impossible for the ablest physiognomist to imagine calculation or self-will beneath that unspeakable delicacy of feature.There were faces of women which deceive knowledge, and mislead observation by their calmness and delicacy; it is necessary to examine such faces when passions speak, and that is difficult, or after they have spoken, which is no longer of any use, for then the woman is old and has ceased to dissimulate.
The princess is one of those impenetrable women; she can make herself what she pleases to be: playful, childlike, distractingly innocent; or reflective, serious, and profound enough to excite anxiety.She came to Madame d'Espard's dinner with the intention of being a gentle, simple woman, to whom life was known only through its deceptions: a woman full of soul, and calumniated, but resigned,--in short, a wounded angel.
She arrived early, so as to pose on a sofa near the fire beside Madame d'Espard, as she wished to be first seen: that is, in one of those attitudes in which science is concealed beneath an exquisite naturalness; a studied attitude, putting in relief the beautiful serpentine outline which, starting from the foot, rises gracefully to the hip, and continues with adorable curves to the shoulder, presenting, in fact, a profile of the whole body.With a subtlety which few women would have dreamed of, Diane, to the great amazement of the marquise, had brought her son with her.After a moment's reflection, Madame d'Espard pressed the princess's hand, with a look of intelligence that seemed to say:--"I understand you! By making d'Arthez accept all the difficulties at once you will not have to conquer them later."Rastignac brought d'Arthez.The princess made none of those compliments to the celebrated author with which vulgar persons overwhelmed him; but she treated him with a kindness full of graceful respect, which, with her, was the utmost extent of her concessions.
Her manner was doubtless the same with the King of France and the royal princes.She seemed happy to see this great man, and glad that she had sought him.Persons of taste, like the princess, are especially distinguished for their manner of listening, for an affability without superciliousness, which is to politeness what practice is to virtue.When the celebrated man spoke, she took an attentive attitude, a thousand times more flattering than the best-seasoned compliments.The mutual presentation was made quietly, without emphasis, and in perfectly good taste, by the marquise.
