during the first half-hour of this visit.

Diane d'Uxelles cautiously avoided, as she would the wearing of a
yellow gown, all mention of d'Arthez. The marquise circled round and

round that topic like a Bedouin round a caravan. Diane amused herself;
the marquise fumed. Diane waited; she intended to utilize her friend

and use her in the chase. Of these two women, both so celebrated in
the social world, one was far stronger than the other. The princess

rose by a head above the marquise, and the marquise was inwardly
conscious of that superiority. In this, perhaps, lay the secret of

their intimacy. The weaker of the two crouched low in her false
attachment, watching for the hour, long awaited by feeble beings, of

springing at the throat of the stronger and leaving the mark of a
joyful bite. Diane saw clear; but the world was the dupe of the wile

caresses of the two friends.
The instant that the princess perceived a direct question on the lips

of her friend, she said:--
"Ah! dearest, I owe you a most complete, immense, infinite, celestial

happiness."
"What can you mean?"

"Have you forgotten what we ruminated three months ago in the little
garden, sitting on a bench in the sun, under the jasmine? Ah! there

are none but men of genius who know how to love! I apply to my grand
Daniel d'Arthez the Duke of Alba's saying to Catherine de' Medici:

'The head of a single salmon is worth all the frogs in the world.'"
"I am not surprised that I no longer see you," said Madame d'Espard.

"Promise me, if you meet him, not to say to him one word about me, my
angel," said the princess, taking her friend's hand. "I am happy, oh!

happy beyond all expression; but you know that in society a word, a
mere jest can do much harm. One speech can kill, for they put such

venom into a single sentence! Ah! if you knew how I long that you
might meet with a love like this! Yes, it is a sweet, a precious

triumph for women like ourselves to end our woman's life in this way;
to rest in an ardent, pure, devoted, complete and absolute love; above

all, when we have sought it long."
"Why do you ask me to be faithful to my dearest friend?" said Madame

d'Espard. "Do you think me capable of playing you some villainous
trick?"

"When a woman possesses such a treasure the fear of losing it is so
strong that it naturally inspires a feeling of terror. I am absurd, I

know; forgive me, dear."
A few moments later the marquise departed; as she watched her go the

princess said to herself:--
"How she will pluck me! But to save her the trouble of trying to get

Daniel away from here I'll send him to her."
At three o'clock, or a few moments after, d'Arthez arrived. In the

midst of some interesting topic on which he was discoursing
eloquently, the princess suddenly cut him short by laying her hand on

his arm.
"Pardon me, my dear friend," she said, interrupting him, "but I fear I

may forget a thing which seems a mere trifle but may be of great
importance. You have not set foot in Madame d'Espard's salon since the

ever-blessed day when I met you there. Pray go at once; not for your
sake, nor by way of politeness, but for me. You may already have made

her an enemy of mine, if by chance she has discovered that since her
dinner you have scarcely left my house. Besides, my friend, I don't

like to see you dropping your connection with society, and neglecting
your occupations and your work. I should again be strangely

calumniated. What would the world say? That I held you in leading-
strings, absorbed you, feared comparisons, and clung to my conquest

knowing it to be my last! Who will know that you are my friend, my
only friend? If you love me indeed, as you say you love me, you will

make the world believe that we are purely and simply brother and
sister-- Go on with what you were saying."

In his armor of tenderness, riveted by the knowledge of so many
splendid virtues, d'Arthez obeyed this behest on the following day and

went to see Madame d'Espard, who received him with charming coquetry.
The marquise took very good care not to say a single word to him about

the princess, but she asked him to dinner on a coming day.
On this occasion d'Arthez found a numerous company. The marquise had

invited Rastignac, Blondet, the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de
Trailles, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, the two brothers Vandenesse, du

Tillet, one of the richest bankers in Paris, the Baron de Nucingen,
Raoul Nathan, Lady Dudley, two very treacherous secretaries of

embassies and the Chevalier d'Espard, the wiliest person in this
assemblage and the chief instigator of his sister-in-law's policy.

When dinner was well under way, Maxime de Trailles turned to d'Arthez
and said smiling:--

"You see a great deal, don't you, of the Princesse de Cadignan?"
To this question d'Arthez responded by curtly nodding his head. Maxime

de Trailles was a "bravo" of the social order, without faith or law,
capable of everything, ruining the women who trusted him, compelling

them to pawn their diamonds to give him money, but covering this
conduct with a brilliantvarnish; a man of charming manners and

satanic mind. He inspired all who knew him with equal contempt and
fear; but as no one was bold enough to show him any sentiments but

those of the utmostcourtesy he saw nothing of this public opinion, or
else he accepted and shared the general dissimulation. He owed to the

Comte de Marsay the greatest degree of elevation to which he could
attain. De Marsay, whose knowledge of Maxime was of long-standing,

judged him capable of fulfilling certain secret and diplomatic
functions which he confided to him and of which de Trailles acquitted

himself admirably. D'Arthez had for some time past mingled
sufficiently in political matters to know the man for what he was, and

he alone had sufficient strength and height of character to express
aloud what others thought or said in a whisper.

"Is it for her that you neglect the Chamber?" asked Baron de Nucingen
in his German accent.

"Ah! the princess is one of the most dangerous women a man can have
anything to do with. I owe to her the miseries of my marriage,"

exclaimed the Marquis d'Esgrignon.
"Dangerous?" said Madame d'Espard. "Don't speak so of my nearest

friend. I have never seen or known anything in the princess that did
not seem to come from the noblest sentiments."

"Let the marquis say what he thinks," cried Rastignac. "When a man has
been thrown by a fine horse he thinks it has vices and he sells it."

Piqued by these words, the Marquis d'Esgrignon looked at d'Arthez and
said:--

"Monsieur is not, I trust, on such terms with the princess that we
cannot speak freely of her?"

D'Arthez kept silence. D'Esgrignon, who was not wanting in cleverness,
replied to Rastignac's speech with an apologetic portrait of the

princess, which put the whole table in good humor. As the jest was
extremely obscure to d'Arthez he leaned towards his neighbor, Madame

de Montcornet, and asked her, in a whisper, what it meant.
"Excepting yourself--judging by the excellent opinion you seem to have

of the princess--all the other guests are said to have been in her
good graces."

"I can assure you that such an accusation is absolutely false," said
Daniel.

"And yet, here is Monsieur d'Esgrignon of an old family of Alencon,
who completely ruined himself for her some twelve years ago, and, if

all is true, came very near going to the scaffold."
"I know the particulars of that affair," said d'Arthez. "Madame de

Cadignan went to Alencon to save Monsieur d'Esgrignon from a trial
before the court of assizes; and this is how he rewards her to-day!"

Madame de Montcornet looked at d'Arthez with a surprise and curiosity
that were almost stupid, then she turned her eyes on Madame d'Espard

with a look which seemed to say: "He is bewitched!"
During this short conversation Madame de Cadignan was protected by

Madame d'Espard, whose protection was like that of the lightning-rod
which draws the flash. When d'Arthez returned to the general