ever have induced him thus to trample under foot all the
established rules of society but the unbounded influence of Madame
Roland,--an influence she exercised with so much the more certainty as
she veiled her designs under the mask of the most passionate love for
him."

"But what was your father's age then?"

"About sixty."

"And he really credited the professions of love made by so much younger
a woman?"

"My father had been in his time one of the most fashionable and admired
men of the day. And Madame Roland, either following the suggestions of
her own artful mind or urged on by the counsels of others, who could
countenance much more--"

"Counsel such a person!"

"I will tell you, my lord. Imagining that a man whose reputation for
gallantry had always stood high in the world would, as he advanced in
years, be more easily delighted than another by being flattered upon his
personal advantages, and more credulously receive such compliments as
served to recall those days most soothing to his vanity to remember,
well, my lord, incredible as it may appear, this woman began to flatter
my poor misguided father upon the graceful _tournure_ of his features
and the inimitable elegance of his shape. And he in his sixtieth year!
Strange as you may consider it, spite of the excellent sense with which
my father was endowed, he fell blindly into the snare, coarse and vulgar
as it was. Such was--such still is, I doubt not--the secret of the
unbounded influence this woman obtained over him. And really, my lord,
spite of my present disinclination for mirth, I can scarcely restrain a
smile at the recollection of having frequently, before my marriage,
heard Madame Roland assert and maintain that what she styled real
maturity was the finest portion of a person's existence, and that this
maturity never began until about the fifty-fifth or sixtieth year of
one's age."

"I suppose that happened to be your father's age?"

"Precisely so, my lord! Then, and then only, according to Madame Roland,
had the understanding, combined with experience, attained their full
development; then only could a man, occupying a distinguished position
in the world, enjoy the consideration to which he was entitled; at that
period only were the _tout ensemble_ of his countenance, and the
exquisite grace of his manners, in their highest perfection; the
physiognomy offering at this delightful epoch of a man's life a heavenly
mixture of winning serenity and