ections which made her equally
indispensable to Crevel and to the Baron. Before the world she
displayed the attractive combination of modest and pensive innocence,
of irreproachable propriety, with a bright humor enhanced by the
suppleness, the grace and softness of the Creole; but in a _tete-a-tete_
she would outdo any courtesan; she was audacious, amusing, and full of
original inventiveness. Such a contrast is irresistible to a man of the
Crevel type; he is flattered by believing himself sole author of the
comedy, thinking it is performed for his benefit alone, and he laughs at
the exquisite hypocrisy while admiring the hypocrite.

Valerie had taken entire possession of Baron Hulot; she had persuaded
him to grow old by one of those subtle touches of flattery which reveal
the diabolical wit of women like her. In all evergreen constitutions a
moment arrives when the truth suddenly comes out, as in a besieged
town which puts a good face on affairs as long as possible. Valerie,
foreseeing the approaching collapse of the old beau of the Empire,
determined to forestall it.

"Why give yourself so much bother, my dear old veteran?" said she one
day, six months after their doubly adulterous union. "Do you want to be
flirting? To be unfaithful to me? I assure you, I should like you better
without your make-up. Oblige me by giving up all your artificial charms.
Do you suppose that it is for two sous' worth of polish on your boots
that I love you? For your india-rubber belt, your strait-waistcoat,
and your false hair? And then, the older you look, the less need I fear
seeing my Hulot carried off by a rival."

And Hulot, trusting to Madame Marneffe's heavenly friendship as much as
to her love, intending, too, to end his days with her, had taken this
confidential hint, and ceased to dye his whiskers and hair. After
this touching declaration from his Valerie, handsome Hector made his
appearance one morning perfectly white. Madame Marneffe could assure him
that she had a hundred times detected the white line of the growth of
the hair.

"And white hair suits your face to perfection," said she; "it softens
it. You look a thousand times better, quite charming."

The Baron, once started on this path of reform, gave up his leather
waistcoat and stays; he threw off all his bracing. His stomach fell
and increased in size. The oak became a tower, and the heaviness of his
movements was all the more alarming because the Baron grew immense