s a true hero, your
sculptor! if he goes on this way, we can't hold a candle to him."

In his studio, with a bare throat leaving his head, which is rather too
large for his body, free, and dressed in a sort of Oriental costume,
Monsieur Dorlange looked to me a great deal better than he does in
regular evening dress. Though I must say that when he grows animated in
speaking his face lights up, a sort of a magnetic essence flows from his
eyes which I had already noticed in our preceding encounters. Madame de
la Bastie was as much struck as I was by this peculiarity.

I don't know if I told you that the ambition of Monsieur Dorlange is to
be returned to the Chamber at the coming elections. This was the reason
he gave for declining Monsieur Gaston's commission. What Monsieur de
l'Estorade and I thought, at first, to be a mere excuse was an actual
reason. At table when Monsieur Joseph Bridau asked him point-blank what
belief was to be given to the report of his parliamentary intentions,
Monsieur Dorlange formally announced them; from that moment, throughout
the dinner, the talk was exclusively on politics.

When it comes to topics foreign to his studies, I expected to find our
artist, if not a novice, at least very slightly informed. Not at all.
On men, on things, on the past as on the future of parties, he had very
clear and really novel views, which were evidently not borrowed from the
newspapers; and he put them forth in lively, easy, and elegant language;
so that after his departure Monsieur de Ronquerolles and Monsieur de
l'Estorade declared themselves positively surprised at the strong and
powerful political attitude he had taken. This admission was all the
more remarkable because, as you know, the two gentlemen are zealous
conservatives, whereas Monsieur Dorlange inclines in a marked degree to
democratic principles.

This unexpected superiority in my problematical follower reassured
me not a little; still, I was resolved to get to the bottom of the
situation, and therefore, after dinner I drew him into one of those
tete-a-tetes which the mistress of a house can always bring about.

After talking awhile about Monsieur Marie-Gaston, our mutual friend, the
enthusiasms of my dear Louise and my efforts to moderate them, I asked
him how soon he intended to send his Saint-Ursula to her destination.

"Everything is ready for her departure," he replied, "but I want your
_exeat_, madame; will you kindly tell me if you desi