which she had emigrated had made her docile to all
suggestions of comfort and elegance. But the day on which occurred the
scene we are about to witness, an apparently trivial detail had revealed
to her the danger of the declivity on which she stood. The greater
number of the new guests, recently imported by Thuillier, knew nothing
of his sister's supremacy in his home. On arrival, therefore, they all
asked Thuillier to present them to _Madame_, and, naturally, Thuillier
could not say to them that his wife was a figure-head who groaned under
the iron hand of a Richelieu, to whom the whole household bent the knee.
It was therefore not until the first homage rendered to the sovereign
"de jure" was paid, that the new-comers were led up to Brigitte, and by
reason of the stiffness which displeasure at this misplacement of
power gave to her greeting they were scarcely encouraged to pay her any
further attentions. Quick to perceive this species of overthrow, Queen
Elizabeth said to herself, with that profound instinct of domination
which was her ruling passion:--

"If I don't take care I shall soon be nobody in this house."

Burrowing into that idea, she came to think that if the project of
making a common household with la Peyrade, then Celeste's husband, were
carried out, the situation which was beginning to alarm her would become
even worse. From that moment, and by sudden intuition, Felix Phellion,
that good young man, with his head too full of mathematics ever to
become a formidable rival to her sovereignty, seemed to her a far better
match than the enterprising lawyer, and she was the first, on seeing the
Phellion father and mother arrive without the son, to express regret at
his absence. Brigitte, however, was not the only one to feel the injury
that the luckless professor was doing to his prospects in thus keeping
away from her reception. Madame Thuillier, with simple candor, and
Celeste with feigned reserve, both made manifest their displeasure. As
for Madame de Godollo, who, in spite of a very remarkable voice, usually
required much pressing before she would sing (the piano having been
opened since her reign began), she now went up to Madame Phellion and
asked her to accompany her, and between two verses of a song she said in
her ear:--

"Why isn't your son here?"

"He is coming," said Madame Phellion. "His father talked to him very
decidedly; but to-night there happens to be a conjunction of I don't
know what pl