An hour later this illustrious company were all assembled in the
salon; some were playing whist, others conversing; the women had their

embroideries in hand, and all were waiting the announcement of dinner.
The Prince de Cadignan was drawing Monsieur Mignon out upon China, and

his campaigns under the empire, and making him talk about the
Portendueres, the L'Estorades, and the Maucombes, Provencal families;

he blamed him for not seeking service, and assured him that nothing
would be easier than to restore him to his rank as colonel of the

Guard.
"A man of your birth and your fortune ought not to belong to the

present Opposition," said the prince, smiling.
This society of distinguished persons not only pleased Modeste, but it

enabled her to acquire, during her stay, a perfection of manners which
without this revelation she would have lacked all her life. Show a

clock to an embryomechanic, and you reveal to him the whole
mechanism; he thus develops the germs of his faculty which lie dormant

within him. In like manner Modeste had the instinct to appropriate the
distinctive qualities of Madame de Maufrigneuse and Madame de

Chaulieu. For her, the sight of these women was an education; whereas
a bourgeois would merely have ridiculed their ways or made them absurd

by clumsyimitation. A well-born, well-educated, and right-minded
young woman like Modeste fell naturally into connection with these

people, and saw at once the differences that separate the aristocratic
world from the bourgeois world, the provinces from the faubourg Saint-

Germain; she caught the almost imperceptible shadings; in short, she
perceived the grace of the "grande dame" without doubting that she

could herself acquire it. She noticed also that her father and La
Briere appeared infinitely better in this Olympus than Canalis. The

great poet, abdicating his real and incontestable power, that of the
mind, became nothing more than a courtier seeking a ministry,

intriguing for an order, and forced to please the whole galaxy. Ernest
de La Briere, without ambitions, was able to be himself; while

Melchior became, to use a vulgar expression, a mere toady, and courted
the Prince de Loudon, the Duc de Rhetore, the Vicomte de Serizy, or

the Duc de Maufrigneuse, like a man not free to assert himself, as did
Colonel Mignon, who was justly proud of his campaigns, and of the

confidence of the Emperor Napoleon. Modeste took note of the strained
efforts of the man of real talent, seeking some witticism that should

raise a laugh, some clever speech, some compliment with which to
flatter these grand personages, whom it was his interest to please. In

a word, to Modeste's eyes the peacock plucked out his tail-feathers.
Toward the middle of the evening the young girl sat down with the

grand equerry in a corner of the salon. She led him there purposely to
end a suit which she could no longer encourage if she wished to retain

her self-respect.
"Monsieur le duc, if you really knew me," she said, "you would

understand how deeply I am touched by your attentions. It is because
of the profound respect I feel for your character, and the friendship

which a soul like yours inspires in mine, that I cannot endure to
wound your self-love. Before your arrival in Havre I loved sincerely,

deeply, and forever, one who is worthy of being loved, and my
affection for whom is still a secret; but I wish you to know--and in

saying this I am more sincere than most young girls--that had I not
already formed this voluntaryattachment, you would have been my

choice, for I recognize your noble and beautiful qualities. A few
words which your aunt and sister have said to me as to your intentions

lead me to make this frank avowal. If you think it desirable, a letter
from my mother shall recall me, on pretence of her illness, to-morrow

morning before the hunt begins. Without your consent I do not choose
to be present at a fete which I owe to your kindness, and where, if my

secret should escape me, you might feel hurt and defrauded. You will
ask me why I have come here at all. I could not withstand the

invitation. Be generous enough not to reproach me for what was almost
a necessary curiosity. But this is not the chief, not the most

delicate thing I have to say to you. You have firm friends in my
father and myself,--more so than perhaps you realize; and as my

fortune was the first cause that brought you to me, I wish to say--but
without intending to use it as a sedative to calm the grief which

gallantry requires you to testify--that my father has thought over the
affair of the marshes, his friend Dumay thinks your project feasible,

and they have already taken steps to form a company. Gobenheim, Dumay,
and my father have subscribed fifteen hundred thousand francs, and

undertake to get the rest from capitalists, who will feel it in their
interest to take up the matter. If I have not the honor of becoming

the Duchesse d'Herouville, I have almost the certainty of enabling you
to choose her, free from all trammels in your choice, and in a higher

sphere than mine. Oh! let me finish," she cried, at a gesture from the
duke.

"Judging by my nephew's emotion," whispered Mademoiselle d'Herouville
to her niece, "it is easy to see you have a sister."

"Monsieur le duc, all this was settled in my mind the day of our first
ride, when I heard you deplore your situation. This is what I have

wished to say to you. That day determined my future life. Though you
did not make the conquest of a woman, you have at least gained

faithful friends at Ingouville--if you will deign to accord us that
title."

This little discourse, which Modeste had carefully thought over, was
said with so much charm of soul that the tears came to the grand

equerry's eyes; he seized her hand and kissed it.
"Stay during the hunt," he said; "my want of merit has accustomed me

to these refusals; but while accepting your friendship and that of the
colonel, you must let me satisfy myself by the judgment of competent

scientific men, that the draining of those marshes will be no risk to
the company you speak of, before I agree to the generous offer of your

friends. You are a noble girl, and though my heart aches to think I
can only be your friend, I will glory in that title, and prove it to

you at all times and in all seasons."
"In that case, Monsieur le duc, let us keep our secret. My choice will

not be known, at least I think not, until after my mother's complete
recovery. I should like our first blessing to come from her eyes."

CHAPTER XXIX
CONCLUSION

"Ladies," said the Prince de Cadignan, as the guests were about to
separate for the night, "I know that several of you propose to follow

the hounds with us to-morrow, and it becomes my duty to tell you that
if you will be Dianas you must rise, like Diana, with the dawn. The

meet is for half-past eight o'clock. I have in the course of my life
seen many women display greater courage than men, but for a few

seconds only; and you will need a strong dose of resolution to keep
you on horseback the whole day, barring a halt for breakfast, which we

shall take, like true hunters and huntresses, on the nail. Are you
still determined to show yourselves trained horse-women?"

"Prince, it is necessary for me to do so," said Modeste, adroitly.
"I answer for myself," said the Duchesse de Chaulieu.

"And I for my daughter Diane; she is worthy of her name," added the
prince. "So, then, you all persist in your intentions? However, I

shall arrange, for the sake of Madame and Mademoiselle de Verneuil and
others of the party who stay at home, to drive the stag to the further

end of the pond."
"Make yourself quite easy, mesdames," said the Prince de Loudon, when

the Royal Huntsman had left the room; "that breakfast 'on the nail'
will take place under a comfortable tent."

The next day, at dawn, all signs gave promise of a glorious day. The
skies, veiled by a slight gray vapor, showed spaces of purest blue,

and would surely be swept clear before mid-day by the northwest wind,
which was already playing with the fleecy cloudlets. As the hunting

party left the chateau, the Master of the Hunt, the Duc de Rhetore,
and the Prince de Loudon, who had no ladies to escort, rode in the

advance, noticing the white masses of the chateau, with its rising
chimneys relieved against the brilliant red-brown foliage which the

trees in Normandy put on at the close of a fine autumn.
"The ladies are fortunate in their weather," remarked the Duc de

Rhetore.
"Oh, in spite of all their boasting," replied the Prince de Cadignan,

"I think they will let us hunt without them!"
"So they might, if each had not a squire," said the duke.

At this moment the attention of these determined huntsmen--for the
Prince de Loudon and the Duc de Rhetore are of the race of Nimrod, and

the best shots of the faubourg Saint-Germain--was attracted by a loud