eatly managed that one is less
startled when reading them than shocked on after-reflection. It
certainly requires skilful management to give an air of probability to
such a scene as is detailed in chapter five. A French _gentleman_, a man
of fortune and family, mixing in good society, is anxious for an
appointment at court, and to obtain it he reckons much on the influence
and good word of a certain Duke of H----. There is a benefit night at
the Opera, and the young wife of the aspirant to court honours has a
box. Between the acts her husband, who has unwillingly accompanied her,
rambles about the house, and discovers the Duke in an inconvenient
corner, where he can see nothing. His grace is not alone, but in the
society of his kept-mistress. To propitiate his patron, the unscrupulous
husband introduces him and his companion into the box of his
unsuspecting wife! The sequel may be imagined; the stare and titter of
acquaintances, the supercilious gratitude of the Duke, the astonishment
of the lady at the singular tone of the pretty and elegantly dressed
woman with whom she is thus unexpectedly brought in contact, and whose
want of _usage_ bespeaks, as she imagines, the newly arrived provincial.
All this, which might pass muster in a novel depicting the manners and
morals of the Regency, is rather violent in one of our day; but yet, so
cleverly are the angles of improbability draped and softened down, the
reader perseveres. The plot is very slight; the tale scarcely depends on
it, but is what the French call a _tableau de moeurs_, with less
pretensions to the regular progress and catastrophe of a novel, than to
be a mirror of everyday scenes and actors on the bustling stage of Paris
life. The characters are well drawn, the dialogues witty and dramatic,
the book abounds in sly hits and smart satire; but its bitterness of
tone injured its popularity, and, unlike its author's other tales, it
met little success. The opening chapter is a picture of a lively
Parisian _menage_, such as many doubtless exist; a striking example of a
_mariage de convenance_, or mis-match.

"Six years had elapsed since the marriage of Julie de Chaverny, and
five years and six months, or thereabouts, since she had discovered that
it was impossible for her to love her husband, and very difficult to
esteem him. He was not a bad man, neither could he be called stupid, nor
even silly; she had once thought him agreeable; now she found him
intolerably wear