sented herself to the admiration of the crowd
at the same moment with one of the bravest colonels of the Guards'
Artillery and the Emperor's favorite, the Comte de Soulanges. The
transient and fortuitous association of these two had about it a certain
air of mystery. On hearing the names announced of Monsieur de Soulanges
and the Comtesse de Vaudremont, a few women sitting by the wall rose,
and men, hurrying in from the side-rooms, pressed forward to the
principal doorway. One of the jesters who are always to be found in any
large assembly said, as the Countess and her escort came in, that "women
had quite as much curiosity about seeing a man who was faithful to his
passion as men had in studying a woman who was difficult to enthrall."

Though the Comte de Soulanges, a young man of about two-and-thirty, was
endowed with the nervous temperament which in a man gives rise to fine
qualities, his slender build and pale complexion were not at first sight
attractive; his black eyes betrayed great vivacity, but he was taciturn
in company, and there was nothing in his appearance to reveal the gift
for oratory which subsequently distinguished him, on the Right, in the
legislative assembly under the Restoration.

The Comtesse de Vaudremont, a tall woman, rather fat, with a skin of
dazzling whiteness, a small head that she carried well, and the immense
advantage of inspiring love by the graciousness of her manner, was one
of those beings who keep all the promise of their beauty.

The pair, who for a few minutes were the centre of general observation,
did not for long give curiosity an opportunity of exercising itself
about them. The Colonel and the Countess seemed perfectly to understand
that accident had placed them in an awkward position. Martial, as they
came forward, had hastened to join the group of men by the fireplace,
that he might watch Madame de Vaudremont with the jealous anxiety of
the first flame of passion, from behind the heads which formed a sort of
rampart; a secret voice seemed to warn him that the success on which he
prided himself might perhaps be precarious. But the coldly polite smile
with which the Countess thanked Monsieur de Soulanges, and her little
bow of dismissal as she sat down by Madame de Gondreville, relaxed the
muscles of his face which jealousy had made rigid. Seeing Soulanges,
however, still standing quite near the sofa on which Madame de
Vaudremont was seated, not apparently having understood t