ensconced yourself."
"Oh, my dear, good Leon," said she in a coaxing tone, "I could not
resist the happiness of
seeing you without your
seeing me. My aunt
took me to this ball, and I was very happy there!"
This speech disarmed the Count's looks of their assumed
severity, for
he had been blaming himself while dreading his wife's return, no doubt
fully informed at the ball of an infidelity he had hoped to hide from
her; and, as is the way of lovers
conscious of their guilt, he tried,
by being the first to find fault, to escape her just anger. Happy in
seeing her husband smile, and in
finding him at this hour in a room
whither of late he had come more
rarely, the Countess looked at him so
tenderly that she blushed and cast down her eyes. Her clemency
enraptured Soulanges all the more, because this scene followed on the
misery he had endured at the ball. He seized his wife's hand and
kissed it
gratefully. Is not
gratitude often a part of love?
"Hortense, what is that on your finger that has hurt my lip so much?"
asked he, laughing.
"It is my diamond which you said you had lost, and which I have found.
General Montcornet did not marry Madame de Vaudremont, in spite of the
mutual understanding in which they had lived for a few minutes, for
she was one of the victims of the terrible fire which sealed the fame
of the ball given by the Austrian
ambassador on the occasion of
Napoleon's marriage with the daughter of the Emperor Joseph II.
JULY, 1829.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bonaparte, Napoleon
The Vendetta
The Gondreville Mystery
Colonel Chabert
The Seamy Side of History
A Woman of Thirty
Gondreville, Malin, Comte de
The Gondreville Mystery
A Start in Life
The Member for Arcis
Keller, Francois
Cesar Birotteau
Eugenie Grandet
The Government Clerks
The Member for Arcis
Keller, Madame Francois
The Member for Arcis
The Thirteen
La Roche-Hugon, Martial de
The Peasantry
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Peasantry
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
Murat, Joachim, Prince
The Vendetta
The Gondreville Mystery
Colonel Chabert
The Country Doctor
Soulanges, Comte Leon de
The Peasantry
Soulanges, Comtesse Hortense de
The Thirteen
The Peasantry
End