"Yes; I have known him for a long while.The man that pointed out the Court to his wife on the occasion of her first state dinner in public with, `These are our people,' could only be a black-hearted scoundrel.I can see Monsieur exactly the same as ever in the King.The bad brother who voted so wrongly in his department of the Constituent Assembly was sure to compound with the Liberals and allow them to argue and talk.This philosophical cant will be just as dangerous now for the younger brother as it used to be for the elder; this fat man with the little mind is amusing himself by creating difficulties, and how his successor is to get out of them I do not know; he holds his younger brother in abhorrence; he would be glad to think as he lay dying, `He will not reign very long----' ""Aunt, he is the King, and I have the honour to be in his service----""But does your post take away your right of free speech, my dear? You come of quite as good a house as the Bourbons.If the Guises had shown a little more resolution, His Majesty would be a nobody at this day.It is time I went out of this world, the noblesse is dead.Yes, it is all over with you, my children,"she continued, looking as she spoke at the Vidame."What has my niece done that the whole town should be talking about her? She is in the wrong; I disapprove of her conduct, a useless scandal is a blunder; that is why I still have my doubts about this want of regard for appearances; I brought her up, and I know that----"Just at that moment the Duchess came out of her boudoir.She had recognised her aunt's voice and heard the name of Montriveau.
She was still in her loose morning-gown; and even as she came in, M.de Grandlieu, looking carelessly out of the window, saw his niece's carriage driving back along the street.The Duke took his daughter's face in both hands and kissed her on the forehead.
"So, dear girl," he said, "you do not know what is going on?""Has anything extraordinary happened, father dear?""Why, all Paris believes that you are with M.de Montriveau.""My dear Antoinette, you were at home all the time, were you not?" said the Princess, holding out a hand, which the Duchess kissed with affectionate respect.
"Yes, dear mother; I was at home all the time.And," she added, as she turned to greet the Vidame and the Marquis, "Iwished that all Paris should think that I was with M.de Montriveau."The Duke flung up his hands, struck them together in despair, and folded his arms.
"Then, cannot you see what will come of this mad freak?" he asked at last.
But the aged Princess had suddenly risen, and stood looking steadily at the Duchess, the younger woman flushed, and her eyes fell.Mme de Chauvry gently drew her closer, and said, "My little angel, let me kiss you!"She kissed her niece very affectionately on the forehead, and continued smiling, while she held her hand in a tight clasp.
"We are not under the Valois now, dear child.You have compromised your husband and your position.Still, we will arrange to make everything right.""But, dear aunt, I do not wish to make it right at all.It is my wish that all Paris should say that I was with M.de Montriveau this morning.If you destroy that belief, however ill grounded it may be, you will do me a singular disservice.""Do you really wish to ruin yourself, child, and to grieve your family?""My family, father, unintentionally condemned me to irreparable misfortune when they sacrificed me to family considerations.You may, perhaps, blame me for seeking alleviations, but you will certainly feel for me.""After all the endless pains you take to settle your daughters suitably!" muttered M.de Navarreins, addressing the Vidame.
The Princess shook a stray grain of snuff from her skirts."My dear little girl," she said, "be happy, if you can.We are not talking of troubling your felicity, but of reconciling it with social usages.We all of us here assembled know that marriage is a defective institution tempered by love.But when you take a lover, is there any need to make your bed in the Place du Carrousel? See now, just be a bit reasonable, and hear what we have to say.""I am listening."
"Mme la Duchesse," began the Duc de Grandlieu, "if it were any part of an uncle's duty to look after his nieces, he ought to have a position; society would owe him honours and rewards and a salary, exactly as if he were in the King's service.So I am not here to talk about my nephew, but of your own interests.Let us look ahead a little.If you persist in making a scandal--I have seen the animal before, and I own that I have no great liking for him--Langeais is stingy enough, and he does not care a rap for anyone but himself; he will have a separation; he will stick to your money, and leave you poor, and consequently you will be a nobody.The income of a hundred thousand livres that you have just inherited from your maternal great-aunt will go to pay for his mistresses' amusements.You will be bound and gagged by the law; you will have to say Amen to all these arrangements.
Suppose M.de Montriveau leaves you----dear me! do not let us put ourselves in a passion, my dear niece; a man does not leave a woman while she is young and pretty; still, we have seen so many pretty women left disconsolate, even among princesses, that you will permit the supposition, an all but impossible supposition Iquite wish to believe.----Well, suppose that he goes, what will become of you without a husband? Keep well with your husband as you take care of your beauty; for beauty, after all, is a woman's parachute, and a husband also stands between you and worse.I am supposing that you are happy and loved to the end, and I am leaving unpleasant or unfortunate events altogether out of the reckoning.This being so, fortunately or unfortunately, you may have children.What are they to be? Montriveaus? Very well;they certainly will not succeed to their father's whole fortune.
