第23章

The converse which Victurnien held with the Duchess can be kept up at his age without too great a strain.He was young enough and ignorant enough of life in Paris to feel no necessity to be upon his guard, no need to keep a watch over his lightest words and glances.The religious sentimentalism, which finds a broadly humorous commentary in the after-thoughts of either speaker, puts the old-world French chat of men and women, with its pleasant familiarity, its lively ease, quite out of the question; they make love in a mist nowadays.

Victurnien was just sufficient of an unsophisticated provincial to remain suspended in a highly appropriate and unfeigned rapture which pleased the Duchess; for women are no more to be deceived by the comedies which men play than by their own.Mme.de Maufrigneuse calculated, not without dismay, that the young Count's infatuation was likely to hold good for six whole months of disinterested love.She looked so lovely in this dove's mood, quenching the light in her eyes by the golden fringe of their lashes, that when the Marquise d'Espard bade her friend good-night, she whispered, "Good! very good, dear!"And with those farewell words, the fair Marquise left her rival to make the tour of the modern Pays du Tendre; which, by the way, is not so absurd a conception as some appear to think.New maps of the country are engraved for each generation; and if the names of the routes are different, they still lead to the same capital city.

In the course of an hour's tete-a-tete, on a corner sofa, under the eyes of the world, the Duchess brought young d'Esgrignon as far as Scipio's Generosity, the Devotion of Amadis, and Chivalrous Self-abnegation (for the Middle Ages were just coming into fashion, with their daggers, machicolations, hauberks, chain-mail, peaked shoes, and romantic painted card-board properties).She had an admirable turn, moreover, for leaving things unsaid, for leaving ideas in a discreet, seeming careless way, to work their way down, one by one, into Victurnien's heart, like needles into a cushion.She possessed a marvelous skill in reticence; she was charming in hypocrisy, lavish of subtle promises, which revived hope and then melted away like ice in the sun if you looked at them closely, and most treacherous in the desire which she felt and inspired.At the close of this charming encounter she produced the running noose of an invitation to call, and flung it over him with a dainty demureness which the printed page can never set forth.

"You will forget me," she said."You will find so many women eager to pay court to you instead of enlightening you....But you will come back to me undeceived.Are you coming to me first?...No.As you will.--For my own part, I tell you frankly that your visits will be a great pleasure to me.People of soul are so rare, and I think that you are one of them.--Come, good-bye; people will begin to talk about us if we talk together any longer."She made good her words and took flight.Victurnien went soon afterwards, but not before others had guessed his ecstatic condition;his face wore the expression peculiar to happy men, something between an Inquisitor's calm discretion and the self-contained beatitude of a devotee, fresh from the confessional and absolution.

"Mme.de Maufrigneuse went pretty briskly to the point this evening,"said the Duchesse de Grandlieu, when only half-a-dozen persons were left in Mlle.des Touches' little drawing-room--to wit, des Lupeaulx, a Master of Requests, who at that time stood very well at court, Vandenesse, the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, Canalis, and Mme.de Serizy.

"D'Esgrignon and Maufrigneuse are two names that are sure to cling together," said Mme.de Serizy, who aspired to epigram.

"For some days past she has been out at grass on Platonism," said des Lupeaulx.

"She will ruin that poor innocent," added Charles de Vandenesse.

"What do you mean?" asked Mlle.des Touches.

"Oh, morally and financially, beyond all doubt," said the Vicomtesse, rising.

The cruel words were cruelly true for young d'Esgrignon.

Next morning he wrote to his aunt describing his introduction into the high world of the Faubourg Saint-Germain in bright colors flung by the prism of love, explaining the reception which met him everywhere in a way which gratified his father's family pride.The Marquis would have the whole long letter read to him twice; he rubbed his hands when he heard of the Vidame de Pamiers' dinner--the Vidame was an old acquaintance--and of the subsequent introduction to the Duchess; but at Blondet's name he lost himself in conjectures.What could the younger son of a judge, a public prosecutor during the Revolution, have been doing there?

There was joy that evening among the Collection of Antiquities.They talked over the young Count's success.So discreet were they with regard to Mme.de Maufrigneuse, that the one man who heard the secret was the Chevalier.There was no financial postscript at the end of the letter, no unpleasant reference to the sinews of war, which every young man makes in such a case.Mlle.Armande showed it to Chesnel.

Chesnel was pleased and raised not a single objection.It was clear, as the Marquis and the Chevalier agreed, that a young man in favor with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse would shortly be a hero at court, where in the old days women were all-powerful.The Count had not made a bad choice.The dowagers told over all the gallant adventures of the Maufrigneuses from Louis XIII.to Louis XVI.--they spared to inquire into preceding reigns--and when all was done they were enchanted.--Mme.de Maufrigneuse was much praised for interesting herself in Victurnien.Any writer of plays in search of a piece of pure comedy would have found it well worth his while to listen to the Antiquities in conclave.