ble of saying that her
dear Camille liked nothing so much as a roving life from one garrison
to another; and before the evening was out, that she was sure her dear
Camille liked a quiet country farmhouse existence of all things. Mother
and daughter had the pinched sub-acid dignity characteristic of those
who have learned by experience the exact value of expressions of
sympathy; they belonged to a class which the world delights to pity;
they had been the objects of the benevolent interest of egoism; they
had sounded the empty void beneath the consoling formulas with which the
world ministers to the necessities of the unfortunate.

M. de Severac was fifty-nine years old, and a childless widower. Mother
and daughter listened, therefore, with devout admiration to all that he
told them about his silkworm nurseries.

"My daughter has always been fond of animals," said the mother. "And as
women are especially interested in the silk which the little creatures
produce, I shall ask permission to go over to Severac, so that my
Camille may see how the silk is spun. My Camille is so intelligent,
she will grasp anything that you tell her in a moment. Did she not
understand one day the inverse ratio of the squares of distances!"

This was the remark that brought the conversation between Mme. du
Brossard and M. de Severac to a glorious close after Lucien's reading
that night.

A few habitues slipped in familiarly among the rest, so did one or two
eldest sons; shy, mute young men tricked out in gorgeous jewelry, and
highly honored by an invitation to this literary solemnity, the boldest
men among them so far shook off the weight of awe as to chatter a good
deal with Mlle. de la Haye. The women solemnly arranged themselves in
a circle, and the men stood behind them. It was a quaint assemblage of
wrinkled countenances and heterogeneous costumes, but none the less it
seemed very alarming to Lucien, and his heart beat fast when he felt
that every one was looking at him. His assurance bore the ordeal with
some difficulty in spite of the encouraging example of Mme. de
Bargeton, who welcomed the most illustrious personages of Angouleme with
ostentatious courtesy and elaborate graciousness; and the uncomfortable
feeling that oppressed him was aggravated by a trifling matter which any
one might have foreseen, though it was bound to come as an unpleasant
shock to a young man with so little experience of the world. Lucien, all
eyes and ears, n