aint-Germain, who did not choose to bow before this social dictum, was
made before long to feel that an insulting provincial indifference
had succeeded to the dazed fascination of the earlier evenings. The
prodigality of his wit and wisdom had produced upon these worthy souls
somewhat the effect which a shopful of glass-ware produces on the eye;
in other words, the fire and brilliancy of Canalis's eloquence soon
wearied people who, to use their own words, "cared more for the solid."

Forced after a while to behave like an ordinary man, the poet found an
unexpected stumbling-block on ground where La Briere had already won the
suffrage of the worthy people who at first had thought him sulky. They
felt the need of compensating themselves for Canalis's reputation by
preferring his friend. The best of men are influenced by such feelings
as these. The simple and straightforward young fellow jarred no one's
self-love; coming to know him better they discovered his heart, his
modesty, his silent and sure discretion, and his excellent bearing.
The Duc d'Herouville considered him, as a political element, far above
Canalis. The poet, ill-balanced, ambitious, and restless as Tasso,
loved luxury, grandeur, and ran into debt; while the young lawyer,
whose character was equable and well-balanced, lived soberly, was useful
without proclaiming it, awaited rewards without begging for them, and
laid by his money.

Canalis had moreover laid himself open in a special way to the bourgeois
eyes that were watching him. For two or three days he had shown signs
of impatience; he had given way to depression, to states of melancholy
without apparent reason, to those capricious changes of temper which
are the natural results of the nervous temperament of poets. These
originalities (we use the provincial word) came from the uneasiness
that his conduct toward the Duchesse de Chaulieu which grew daily less
explainable, caused him. He knew he ought to write to her, but could not
resolve on doing so. All these fluctuations were carefully remarked
and commented on by the gentle American, and the excellent Madame
Latournelle, and they formed the topic of many a discussion between
these two ladies and Madame Mignon. Canalis felt the effects of these
discussions without being able to explain them. The attention paid
to him was not the same, the faces surrounding him no longer wore the
entranced look of the earlier days; while at the same time Ernest was
evi