gations to him, but I also know those we are under to you.
Both generosities are natural--but you are generous every day and all
day. My father dines here to-day, also my uncle Ronquerolles and my aunt
Madame de Serizy. Dress yourself therefore," she said, taking the hand
he offered to assist her from the carriage.

Thaddeus went to his own room to dress with a joyful heart, though
shaken by an inward dread. He went down at the last moment and behaved
through dinner as he had done on the first occasion, that is, like a
soldier fit only for his duties as a steward. But this time Clementine
was not his dupe; his glance had enlightened her. The Marquis de
Ronquerolles, one of the ablest diplomates after Talleyrand, who had
served with de Marsay during his short ministry, had been informed by
his niece of the real worth and character of Comte Paz, and knew how
modestly he made himself the steward of his friend Laginski.

"And why is this the first time I have the pleasure of seeing Comte
Paz?" asked the marquis.

"Because he is so shy and retiring," replied Clementine with a look at
Paz telling him to change his behavior.

Alas! that we should have to avow it, at the risk of rendering the
captain less interesting, but Paz, though superior to his friend
Adam, was not a man of parts. His apparent superiority was due to his
misfortunes. In his lonely and poverty-stricken life in Warsaw he had
read and taught himself a good deal; he had compared and meditated. But
the gift of original thought which makes a great man he did not possess,
and it can never be acquired. Paz, great in heart only, approached in
heart to the sublime; but in the sphere of sentiments, being more a man
of action than of thought, he kept his thoughts to himself; and they
only served therefore to eat his heart out. What, after all, is a
thought unexpressed?

After Clementine's little speech, the Marquis de Ronquerolles and his
sister exchanged a singular glance, embracing their niece, Comte Adam,
and Paz. It was one of those rapid scenes which take place only in
France and Italy,--the two regions of the world (all courts excepted)
where eyes can say everything. To communicate to the eye the full power
of the soul, to give it the value of speech, needs either the pressure
of extreme servitude, or complete liberty. Adam, the Marquis du Rouvre,
and Clementine did not observe this luminous by-play of the old coquette
and the old diplomatist, but Paz, the f