d Steinbock.

"He will not be there to see, I hope!" replied she. "The group would
be worth more than all his fortune, for Delilah's costume is rather
un-dressy."

Just as Crevel loved to strike an attitude, every woman has a victorious
gesture, a studied movement, which she knows must win admiration. You
may see in a drawing-room how one spends all her time looking down at
her tucker or pulling up the shoulder-piece of her gown, how another
makes play with the brightness of her eyes by glancing up at the
cornice. Madame Marneffe's triumph, however, was not face to face like
that of other women. She turned sharply round to return to Lisbeth at
the tea-table. This ballet-dancer's pirouette, whisking her skirts, by
which she had overthrown Hulot, now fascinated Steinbock.

"Your vengeance is secure," said Valerie to Lisbeth in a whisper.
"Hortense will cry out all her tears, and curse the day when she robbed
you of Wenceslas."

"Till I am Madame la Marechale I shall not think myself successful,"
replied the cousin; "but they are all beginning to wish for it.--This
morning I went to Victorin's--I forgot to tell you.--The young Hulots
have bought up their father's notes of hand given to Vauvinet, and
to-morrow they will endorse a bill for seventy-two thousand francs at
five per cent, payable in three years, and secured by a mortgage on
their house. So the young people are in straits for three years;
they can raise no more money on that property. Victorin is dreadfully
distressed; he understands his father. And Crevel is capable of refusing
to see them; he will be so angry at this piece of self-sacrifice."

"The Baron cannot have a sou now," said Valerie, and she smiled at
Hulot.

"I don't see where he can get it. But he will draw his salary again in
September."

"And he has his policy of insurance; he has renewed it. Come, it is
high time he should get Marneffe promoted. I will drive it home this
evening."

"My dear cousin," said Lisbeth to Wenceslas, "go home, I beg. You are
quite ridiculous. Your eyes are fixed on Valerie in a way that is enough
to compromise her, and her husband is insanely jealous. Do not tread in
your father-in-law's footsteps. Go home; I am sure Hortense is sitting
up for you."

"Madame Marneffe told me to stay till the last to settle my little
business with you and her," replied Wenceslas.

"No, no," said Lisbeth; "I will bring you the ten thousand francs, for
her husband has his eye on