d'Espard, and de Marsay, then president of the
Council (on this occasion the princess saw her former lover for the
last time, for he died the following year), Eugene de Rastignac,
under-secretary of State attached to de Marsay's ministry, two
ambassadors, two celebrated orators from the Chamber of Peers, the old
dukes of Lenoncourt and de Navarreins, the Comte de Vandenesse and his
young wife, and d'Arthez,--who formed a rather singular circle, the
composition of which can be thus explained. The princess was anxious to
obtain from the prime minister of the crown a permit for the return
of the Prince de Cadignan. De Marsay, who did not choose to take upon
himself the responsibility of granting it came to tell the princess the
matter had been entrusted to safe hands, and that a certain political
manager had promised to bring her the result in the course of that
evening.

Madame and Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne were announced. Laurence, whose
principles were unyielding, was not only surprised but shocked to see
the most illustrious representatives of Legitimacy talking and laughing
in a friendly manner with the prime minister of the man whom she never
called anything but Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans. De Marsay, like an
expiring lamp, shone with a last brilliancy. He laid aside for the
moment his political anxieties, and Madame de Cinq-Cygne endured him, as
they say the Court of Austria endured de Saint-Aulaire; the man of the
world effaced the minister of the citizen-king. But she rose to her feet
as though her chair were of red-hot iron when the name was announced of
"Monsieur le Comte de Gondreville."

"Adieu, madame," she said to the princess in a curt tone.

She left the room with Berthe, measuring her steps to avoid encountering
that fatal being.

"You may have caused the loss of Georges' marriage," said the princess
to de Marsay, in a low voice. "Why did you not tell me your agent's
name?"

The former clerk of Arcis, former Conventional, former Thermidorien,
tribune, Councillor of State, count of the Empire and senator, peer of
the Restoration, and now peer of the monarchy of July, made a servile
bow to the princess.

"Fear nothing, madame," he said; "we have ceased to make war on princes.
I bring you an assurance of the permit," he added, seating himself
beside her.

Malin was long in the confidence of Louis XVIII., to whom his varied
experience was useful. He had greatly aided in overthrowing Decazes, and
had