er husband's very existence was involved therein, hers should
also be. She had, however, formerly dreamed of an entirely different
youth and on bright, sunshiny days she reflected that yonder on the
banks of the Isere, it was delightful in her sweet, little, provincial
house.

Besides, she carefully concealed her melancholy. She knew that she was
already reproached for being somewhat sad. A minister's wife should know
how to smile. This was what Madame Marsy never failed to repeat to her
as often as possible when she visited her at Place Beauvau. This woman
who hardly concerned herself at all about her son, allowing him to grow
up badly enough and committing all her maternal duties to the
grandmother, was perpetually cheerful, notwithstanding that her life had
been chequered by chance and her widowhood of sufficiently dramatic
character, as was said. She endeavored to play the part of an adviser,
an intimate friend to Adrienne. She frequently said to Madame Gerson,
who rarely left her, that Madame Vaudrey would be altogether charming if
she had _chic_.

"Unfortunately, she is provincial; not in her element. She still smacks
of Dauphiny. And then--what is the funniest thing: she knows nothing of
politics."

"She does not even concern herself about it," said the pretty Madame
Gerson, laughing heartily.

According to these ladies she did not take the trouble to fulfil the
role of a minister's wife faultlessly. Ah! if only Sabine or Blanche
Gerson occupied the position filled by this _petite bourgeoise_ of
Grenoble! Well! Paris would have seen what an Athenian Republic was.

Sabine Marsy was decidedly clever. She politely advised Adrienne,
without appearing to do so, as to many matters, in such a way as to
convey reproof under the guise of kindness. Madame Vaudrey would have
done well, as Madame Gerson also observed, to have studied the _Code du
Ceremonial_ on reaching Place Beauvau.

Like Madame Marsy, Madame Gerson had gradually gained Adrienne's
friendship. From an ostentatious desire to be able to tell of what
happened at the ministry; to be on the first list of guests, when the
minister received or gave a ball, Sabine Marsy, who had suffered from
the mania of aspiring to become an artist, patronized the
_intransigeant_ painters and exhibited at the salon, now set her mind on
playing the role of a political figure in Paris. Madame Gerson,
_Blanche_, as Sabine called her, had a similar ambition, but simply from
a