volve the question, without coming any nearer a
solution. Again he called before his eyes the image of this woman, and
admitted that she was really potently seductive, with a fresh, girlish
body, flexible, and without a lot of repugnant flesh--and mysterious,
with her concentrated air, her plaintive eyes, and even her coldness,
real or feigned.

He summarized all that he really knew about her: simply that she was a
widow when she married Chantelouve, that she had no children, that her
first husband, a manufacturer of chasubles, had, for unknown reasons,
committed suicide. That was all. On the other hand, too, too much was
known about Chantelouve!

Author of a history of Poland and the cabinets of the north; of a
history of Boniface VIII and his times; a life of the blessed Jeanne de
Valois, founder of the Annonciade; a biography of the Venerable Mother
Anne de Xaintonge, teacher of the Company of Saint Ursula; and other
books of the same kind, published by Lecoffre, Palme, Poussielgue, in
the inevitable shagreen or sheep bindings stamped with dendriform
patterns: Chantelouve was preparing his candidacy for the Academie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and hoped for the support of the party
of the Ducs. That was why he received influential hypocrites, provincial
Tartufes, and priests every week. He doubtless had to drive himself to
do this, because in spite of his slinking slyness he was jovial and
enjoyed a joke. On the other hand, he aspired to figure in the
literature that counts at Paris, and he expended a good deal of
ingenuity inveigling men of letters to his house on another evening
every week, to make them his aides, or at least keep them from openly
attacking him, so soon as his candidacy--an entirely clerical
affair--should be announced. It was probably to attract and placate his
adversaries that he had contrived these baroque gatherings to which, out
of curiosity as a matter of fact, the most utterly different kinds of
people came.

He had other motives. It was said that he had no scruples about
exploiting his social acquaintances. Durtal had even noticed that at
each of the dinners given by Chantelouve a well-dressed stranger was
present, and the rumour went about that this guest was a wealthy
provincial to whom men of letters were exhibited like a wax-work
collection, and from whom, before or afterward, important sums were
borrowed.

"It is undeniable that the Chantelouves have no income and that the