most clear-sighted criticism had no fault to find with her. Lookers on
chose to think that the vice-admiral had reserved the right of disposing
of his fortune to keep his wife more tightly in hand; but this was a
notion as insulting to the uncle as to the niece. Their conduct was
indeed so delicately judicious that the men who were most interested in
guessing the secrets of the couple could never decide whether the old
Count regarded her as a wife or as a daughter. He was often heard to say
that he had rescued his niece as a castaway after shipwreck; and that,
for his part, he had never taken a mean advantage of hospitality when
he had saved an enemy from the fury of the storm. Though the Countess
aspired to reign in Paris and tried to keep pace with Mesdames the
Duchesses de Maufrigneuse and du Chaulieu, the Marquises d’Espard and
d’Aiglemont, the Comtesses Feraud, de Montcornet, and de Restaud,
Madame de Camps, and Mademoiselle des Touches, she did not yield to the
addresses of the young Vicomte de Portenduere, who made her his idol.
Two years after her marriage, in one of the old drawing-rooms in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain, where she was admired for her character, worthy
of the old school, Emilie heard the Vicomte de Longueville announced.
In the corner of the room where she was sitting, playing piquet with
the Bishop of Persepolis, her agitation was not observed; she turned her
head and saw her former lover come in, in all the freshness of youth.
His father’s death, and then that of his brother, killed by the severe
climate of Saint-Petersburg, had placed on Maximilien’s head the
hereditary plumes of the French peer’s hat. His fortune matched his
learning and his merits; only the day before his youthful and fervid
eloquence had dazzled the Assembly. At this moment he stood before the
Countess, free, and graced with all the advantages she had formerly
required of her ideal. Every mother with a daughter to marry made
amiable advances to a man gifted with the virtues which they attributed
to him, as they admired his attractive person; but Emilie knew, better
than any one, that the Vicomte de Longueville had the steadfast nature
in which a wise woman sees a guarantee of happiness. She looked at the
admiral who, to use his favorite expression, seemed likely to hold his
course for a long time yet, and cursed the follies of her youth.
At this moment Monsieur de Persepolis said with Episcopal grace: “Fair
lady, you have thrown away the king of hearts--I have won. But do not
regret your money. I keep it for my little seminaries.”
PARIS, December 1829.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beaudenord, Godefroid de
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Firm of Nucingen
Dudley, Lady Arabella
The Lily of the Valley
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Letters of Two Brides
Fontaine, Comte de
The Chouans
Modeste Mignon
Cesar Birotteau
The Government Clerks
Kergarouet, Comte de
The Purse
Ursule Mirouet
Louis XVIII., Louis-Stanislas-Xavier
The Chouans
The Seamy Side of History
The Gondreville Mystery
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Lily of the Valley
Colonel Chabert
The Government Clerks
Manerville, Paul Francois-Joseph, Comte de
The Thirteen
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Marriage Settlement
Marsay, Henri de
The Thirteen
The Unconscious Humorists
Another Study of Woman
The Lily of the Valley
Father Goriot
Jealousies of a Country Town
Ursule Mirouet
A Marriage Settlement
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
Modest Mignon
The Secrets of a Princess
The Gondreville Mystery
A Daughter of Eve
Palma (banker)
The Firm of Nucingen
Cesar Birotteau
Gobseck
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Portenduere, Vicomte Savinien de
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Ursule Mirouet
Beatrix
Rastignac, Eugene de
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Interdiction
A Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Gondreville Mystery
The Firm of Nucingen
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists
Vandenesse, Marquise Charles de (Emilie de Fontaine)
Cesar Birotteau
Ursule Mirouet
A Daughter of Eve