ked, which may partly
account for this sympathy. The duke is stiff and haughty, but there is
little in him. What a contrast the brother is to her who lives in our
tenderest memory. She was simple and kind, yet she never derogated from
her dignity; nothing equalled the lovable qualities of her heart but the
charms of her mind.

IV. THE COMTESSE DE L'ESTORAADE TO MADAME OCTAVE DE CAMPS

Paris, February, 1839.

Nothing could be more judicious than what you have written me, my dear
friend. It was certainly to have been expected that my "bore" would have
approached me on the occasion of our next meeting. His heroism gave him
the right to do so, and politeness made it a duty. Under pain of being
thought unmannerly he was bound to make inquiries as to the results
of the accident on my health and that of Nais. But if, contrary to all
these expectations, he did not descend from his cloud, my resolution,
under your judicious advice, was taken. If the mountain did not come
to me, I should go to the mountain; like Hippolyte in the tale of
Theramene, I would rush upon the monster and discharge my gratitude
upon him at short range. I have come to think with you that the really
dangerous side of this foolish obsession on his part is its duration and
the inevitable gossip in which, sooner or later, it would involve me.

Therefore, I not only accepted the necessity of speaking to my shadow
first, but under pretence that my husband wished to call upon him and
thank him in person, I determined to ask him his name and address, and
if I found him a suitable person I intended to ask him to dinner on the
following day; believing that if he had but a shadow of common-sense,
he would, when he saw the manner in which I live with my husband, my
frantic passion, as you call it, for my children, in short, the whole
atmosphere of my well-ordered home, he would, as I say, certainly see
the folly of persisting in his present course. At any rate half the
danger of his pursuit was over if it were carried on openly. If I was
still to be persecuted, it would be in my own home, where we are
all, more or less, exposed to such annoyances, which an honest woman
possessing some resources of mind can always escape with honor.

Well, all these fine schemes and all your excellent advice have come to
nothing. Since the accident, or rather since the day when my physician
first allowed me to go out, nothing, absolutely nothing have I seen
of my unknown lo