se rooms so much evil was spoken and done? Is not
Taglioni a match for Camargo? or Malibran the equal of Saint-Huberti?
Are not our poets superior to those of the eighteenth century? If at
this moment, through the fault of the Grocers who govern us, we have not
a style of our own, had not the Empire its distinguishing stamp as
the age of Louis XV. had, and was not its splendor fabulous? Have the
sciences lost anything?"

"I am quite of your opinion, madame; the women of this age are truly
great," replied the Comte de Vandenesse. "When posterity shall have
followed us, will not Madame Recamier appear in proportions as fine
as those of the most beautiful women of the past? We have made so much
history that historians will be lacking. The age of Louis XIV. had but
one Madame de Sevigne; we have a thousand now in Paris who certainly
write better than she did, and who do not publish their letters. Whether
the Frenchwoman be called 'perfect lady,' or great lady, she will always
be _the_ woman among women.

"Emile Blondet has given us a picture of the fascinations of a woman
of the day; but, at need, this creature who bridles or shows off, who
chirps out the ideas of Mr. This and Mr. That, would be heroic. And it
must be said, your faults, mesdames, are all the more poetical, because
they must always and under all circumstances be surrounded by greater
perils. I have seen much of the world, I have studied it perhaps too
late; but in cases where the illegality of your feelings might
be excused, I have always observed the effects of I know not what
chance--which you may call Providence--inevitably overwhelming such as
we consider light women."

"I hope," said Madame de Vandenesse, "that we can be great in other
ways----"

"Oh, let the Comte de Vandenesse preach to us!" exclaimed Madame de
Serizy.

"With all the more reason because he has preached a great deal by
example," said the Baronne de Nucingen.

"On my honor!" said General de Montriveau, "in all the dramas--a word
you are very fond of," he said, looking at Blondet--"in which the finger
of God has been visible, the most frightful I ever knew was very near
being by my act----"

"Well, tell us all about it!" cried Lady Barimore; "I love to shudder!"

"It is the taste of a virtuous woman," replied de Marsay, looking at
Lord Dudley's lovely daughter.

"During the campaign of 1812," General de Montriveau began, "I was the
involuntary cause of a terrible disaster whi