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
princessrose 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