certain soon to demonstrate
the vanity of such consolations, powerless to cure the cruel wounds of
offended dignity an love.

"How many times," said Adrienne to herself, and with reason, "has the
prince encountered, in hunting, from pure caprice and with no gain, such
danger as he braved in picking up my bouquet! and then, who tells me he
did not mean to offer it to the woman who accompanied him?"

Singular (it may be) in the eyes of the world, but just and great in
those of heaven, the ideas which Adrienne cherished with regard to love,
joined to her natural pride, presented an invincible obstacle to the
thought of her succeeding this woman (whoever she might be), thus
publicly displayed by the prince as his mistress. And yet Adrienne
hardly dared avow to herself, that she experienced a feeling of
jealousy, only the more painful and humiliating, the less her rival
appeared worthy to be compared to her.

At other times, on the contrary, in spite of a conscious sense of her
own value, Mdlle. de Cardoville, remembering the charming countenance of
Rose-Pompon, asked herself if the bad taste and improper manners of this
pretty creature resulted from precocious and depraved effrontery, or
from a complete ignorance of the usages of society. In the latter case,
such ignorance, arising from a simple and ingenuous nature, might in
itself have a great charm; and if to this attraction, combined with that
of incontestable beauty, were added sincere love and a pure soul, the
obscure birth, or neglected education of the girl might be of little
consequence, and she might be capable of inspiring Djalma with a
profound passion. If Adrienne hesitated to see a lost creature in
Rose-Pompon, notwithstanding unfavorable appearances, it was because,
remembering what so many travellers had related of Djalma's greatness of
soul, and recalling the conversation she had overheard between him
and Rodin, she could not bring herself to believe that a man of
such remarkable intelligence, with so tender a heart, so poetical,
imaginative and enthusiastic a mind could be capable of loving a
depraved and vulgar creature, and of openly exhibiting himself in public
along with her. There was a mystery in the transaction, which Adrienne
sought in vain to penetrate. These trying doubts, this cruel curiosity,
only served to nourish Adrienne's fatal love; and we may imagine her
incurable despair, when she found that the indifference, or even disdain
of Djalm