pard, with whom a
Minister has to come to terms; this woman writes a little scented note,
which her man-servant carries to the Minister's man-servant. The note
greets the Minister on his waking, and he reads it at once. Though
the Minister has business to attend to, the man is enchanted to have a
reason for calling on one of the Queens of Paris, one of the Powers of
the Faubourg Saint-Germain, one of the favorites of the Dauphiness, of
MADAME, or of the King. Casimir Perier, the only real statesman of the
Revolution of July, would leave anything to call on a retired Gentleman
of the bed-chamber to King Charles X.

This theory accounts for the magical effect of the words:

"Madame,--Madame Camusot, on very important business, which she says you
know of," spoken in Madame d'Espard's ear by her maid, who thought she
was awake.

And the Marquise desired that Amelie should be shown in at once.

The magistrate's wife was attentively heard when she began with these
words:

"Madame la Marquise, we have ruined ourselves by trying to avenge
you----"

"How is that, my dear?" replied the Marquise, looking at Madame Camusot
in the dim light that fell through the half-open door. "You are vastly
sweet this morning in that little bonnet. Where do you get that shape?"

"You are very kind, madame.--Well, you know that Camusot's way of
examining Lucien de Rubempre drove the young man to despair, and he
hanged himself in prison."

"Oh, what will become of Madame de Serizy?" cried the Marquise,
affecting ignorance, that she might hear the whole story once more.

"Alas! they say she is quite mad," said Amelie. "If you could persuade
the Lord Keeper to send for my husband this minute, by special
messenger, to meet him at the Palais, the Minister would hear some
strange mysteries, and report them, no doubt, to the King.... Then
Camusot's enemies would be reduced to silence."

"But who are Camusot's enemies?" asked Madame d'Espard.

"The public prosecutor, and now Monsieur de Serizy."

"Very good, my dear," replied Madame d'Espard, who owed to Monsieur
de Granville and the Comte de Serizy her defeat in the disgraceful
proceedings by which she had tried to have her husband treated as
a lunatic, "I will protect you; I never forget either my foes or my
friends."

She rang; the maid drew open the curtains, and daylight flooded the
room; she asked for her desk, and the maid brought it in. The Marquise
hastily scrawled a few lines.