destroy her reputation,
she had accorded this meeting, not from love, but solely from
commiseration, in order to console him for the ridiculous part the bad
taste of the Duke de Lucenay had made him play before her at the
embassy. Words can ill describe the disgust and vexation with which
Madame d'Harville beheld the slipshod _deshabille_ of the commandant,
implying as it did his opinion how completely her ill-judged
condescension had broken down the barriers of etiquette, and led him to
consider no further respect towards her necessary.

The timepiece in the small salon which Madame d'Harville ordinarily
occupied struck nine o'clock. Dressmakers and tavern-keepers have so
much abused the style of Louis XV. and the Renaissance, that the
marquise, a woman of infinite taste, had excluded from her apartments
this description of ornament, now become so vulgarised, and confined it
to that part of the hotel devoted to the reception of visitors and grand
entertainments. Nothing could be more elegant or more _distingue_ than
the fitting-up of the salon in which the marquise awaited Rodolph. The
colour of the walls as well as the curtains (which, without either
valances or draperies, were of Indian texture) was bright straw colour,
on which were embroidered, in a darker shade, in unwrought silk,
arabesques of the most beautiful designs and whimsical devices. Double
curtains of point d'Alencon entirely concealed the windows. The
rosewood doors were set off with gold mouldings, most beautifully
carved, surrounding in each panel an oval medallion of Sevres china,
nearly a foot in diameter, representing a numberless variety of birds
and flowers of surpassing brilliancy and beauty. The frames of the
looking-glasses and the cornices of the curtains were also of rosewood,
ornamented with similar raised work of silver gilt. The white marble
mantelpiece, with its supporting caryatides of antique beauty and
exquisite grace, was from the chisel of the proud and imperious
Marochetti, that great artist having consented to sculpture this
delicious _chef-d'oeuvre_ in imitation of Benvenuto Cellini, who
disdained not to model ewers and armour. Two candelabras, and two
candlesticks of vermeil, forming groups of small figures beautifully
executed, stood on either side of the timepiece, which was formed of a
square block of lapis lazuli raised on a pedestal of Oriental jasper,
and surmounted with a large and magnificently enamelled golden cup,
ri