f this mutual acquaintance gave rise to endless conversation
about marriages, births, and relationships. The baroness, with
prodigious feats of memory, talked about the ancestors and descendants
of numerous families, and traversed the complicated labyrinths of
different genealogies without ever losing herself.

"Tell me, vicomte, have you ever heard of the Saunoys de Varfleur?
Gontran, the elder son, married Mademoiselle de Coursil, one of the
Coursil-Courvilles; and the younger married a cousin of mine,
Mademoiselle de la Roche-Aubert, who was related to the Crisanges. Now,
M. de Crisange was an intimate friend of my father, and no doubt knew
yours also."

"Yes, madame; was it not the M. de Crisange who emigrated, and whose son
ruined himself?"

"That is the very man. He had proposed for my aunt after the death of
her husband, the Comte d'Eretry, but she would not accept him because he
took snuff. By the way, do you know what has become of the Viloises?
They left Touraine about 1813, after a reverse of fortune, to go and
live in Auvergne; and I have never heard anything of them since."

"I believe, madame, that the old marquis was killed by a fall from a
horse, leaving one daughter married to an Englishman, and the other to a
rich merchant who had seduced her."

Names they had heard their parents mention when they were children
returned to their minds, and the marriages of these people seemed as
important to them as great public events. They talked about men and
women they had never seen as if they knew them well, and these people,
living so far away, talked about them in the same manner, and they felt
as though they were acquainted with each other, almost as if they were
friends, or relations, simply because they belonged to the same class
and were of equal rank.

The baron was rather unsociable, his philosophic views disagreeing with
the beliefs and prejudices of the people of his own rank, did not know
any of the families living near, and asked the vicomte about them.

"Oh, there are very good families around here," answered M. de Lamare,
in the same tone as he would have said that there were not many rabbits
on the hills, and he entered into details about them.

There were only three families of rank in the neighborhood; the Marquis
de Coutelier, the head of the Normandy aristocracy; the Vicomte and
Vicomtesse de Briseville, people who were very well-born but held
themselves rather aloof; and lastly, the C