f which the
absurdity would be evident to some women who were not less clear-sighted
than merciless, would inevitably become a subject of constant ridicule.
He feared lest her eccentric notions should deviate into bad style. He
trembled to think that the pitiless world might already be laughing at
a young woman who remained so long on the stage without arriving at
any conclusion of the drama she was playing. More than one actor in it,
disgusted by a refusal, seemed to be waiting for the slightest turn
of ill-luck to take his revenge. The indifferent, the lookers-on were
beginning to weary of it; admiration is always exhausting to human
beings. The old Vendeen knew better than any one that if there is an
art in choosing the right moment for coming forward on the boards of the
world, on those of the Court, in a drawing-room or on the stage, it is
still more difficult to quit them in the nick of time. So during
the first winter after the accession of Charles X., he redoubled his
efforts, seconded by his three sons and his sons-in-law, to assemble in
the rooms of his official residence the best matches which Paris and the
various deputations from departments could offer. The splendor of his
entertainments, the luxury of his dining-room, and his dinners, fragrant
with truffles, rivaled the famous banquets by which the ministers of
that time secured the vote of their parliamentary recruits.

The Honorable Deputy was consequently pointed at as a most influential
corrupter of the legislative honesty of the illustrious Chamber that was
dying as it would seem of indigestion. A whimsical result! his efforts
to get his daughter married secured him a splendid popularity. He
perhaps found some covert advantage in selling his truffles twice over.
This accusation, started by certain mocking Liberals, who made up by
their flow of words for their small following in the Chamber, was not
a success. The Poitevin gentleman had always been so noble and so
honorable, that he was not once the object of those epigrams which the
malicious journalism of the day hurled at the three hundred votes of the
centre, at the Ministers, the cooks, the Directors-General, the princely
Amphitryons, and the official supporters of the Villele Ministry.

At the close of this campaign, during which Monsieur de Fontaine had on
several occasions brought out all his forces, he believed that this time
the procession of suitors would not be a mere dissolving view in hi