onger and stronger, when, as her enemies gained
strength, her former friends either gathered in little despairing knots
together, or abandoned the field in defeat. I thought, or rather I
seemed to feel, that this man's eyes were fixed upon me oftentimes when
I was not looking at him. I had a strange sense of consciousness that,
affect what bearing I might, he was reading my secret thoughts at his
leisure, and conning over traits of my character. Whenever any momentary
burst of disapprobation from the audience had made me fall back in shame
and anger within my box, I could feel that his eyes were following me
with a glance of persecuting keenness.

Margot's enemies were triumphant; they came each night in crowds, and
by a hundred contrivances of insult displayed their bitter and undying
hatred of her. The leader of the party was a Vicomte Dechaine, whose
mistress was the rival of Margot,--if even third-rate powers could
aspire to contend with genius such as hers! Her friend, it was said, had
organized the entire conspiracy, and, being a rich man, his purse and
his influence were powerful allies. At his supper-table, the writers of
the papers, the young fashionables of society, and the professed critics
who swayed public taste, were said to meet and concert their measures.
Their victory cost them less than they had ever anticipated. Margot's
own indiscretions--I have no other word for them--had worked faster
for her ruin than all their bitterest animosity. It was not a mere
indifference to public opinion she displayed,--it was a downright
contempt for it. If they censured any peculiarity of expression,--a
pause, or a gesture,--she was sure not only to repeat, but even
exaggerate it. Did any detail of her costume excite reproof, she at once
assumed it as a reason for maintaining it. In a word, it seemed that all
the arts others employ to win praise and secure popularity were used by
her to show her utter disdain of the world's opinion; and this, too, in
a career where such opinion is the law, and where there exists no appeal
against it.

To restrain this spirit, even to moderate it, her friends utterly
failed. She who once heard even the humblest with deference, and
accepted suggestions with a degree of humility, now rejected all counsel
and guidance, and boldly proclaimed herself the only competent judge of
what regarded her. A frequent subject of censure amongst her critics was
a habit she had fallen into, of pressing b