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The very day after his arrival at Madame de la Chanterie's he was forced to examine himself, under the sense that he was separated from all, even from Paris, though he still lived in the shadow of its cathedral. Stripped of his social vanities, he was about to have no other witnesses of his acts than his own conscience and the inmates of that house.
The dining-room, painted throughout in gray, the design of the woodwork being in the style of Louis XIV., adjoined the sort of antechamber in which Manon was usually stationed, and it seemed to be parallel with Madame de la Chanterie's bedroom, which also opened into the salon. This room had no other ornament than a tall clock.
An unforeseen circumstance brought about the revelation of Madame de la Chanterie's history to Godefroid; and so fully was this made to him that the overpowering interest she excited in his soul was completely satisfied. The public mind was at that time much occupied by one of those horrible criminal trials which mark the annals of our police-courts.
Godefroid put out his hand to take that of his hostess, who gave it to him, guessing his intentions. He carried it respectfully to his lips. Madame de la Chanterie's hand was exquisitely beautiful, without a wrinkle; neither fat nor thin; white enough to be the envy of all young women, and shapely enough for the model of a sculptor.
When Godefroid stopped before the arched portal of Madame de la Chanterie's house, the priest turned towards him and examined him by the light of the hanging street-lamp, probably one of the last to disappear from the heart of old Paris. "Have you come to see Madame de la Chanterie, monsieur?" said the priest. "Yes," replied Godefroid.
Madame de la Chanterie's fund, founded to restore poor households to their religious and legal status, hunts up such couples, and with all the more success because it helps them in their poverty before attacking their unlawful union. As soon as Madame Hulot had recovered, she returned to her occupations.
The presence of this great lady in Madame de la Chanterie's salon was sufficiently surprising; but the manner in which the two women met and treated each other seemed to Godefroid inexplicable; for it showed the closest intimacy and a constant intercourse which gave Madame de la Chanterie an added value in his eyes.
"Can you tell me Madame de la Chanterie's history?" "Impossible, without her consent," replied Monsieur Alain; "for it is connected with one of the most terrible events of Imperial policy. It was through my friend Bordin that I first knew Madame. He had in his possession all the secrets of that noble life; it was he who, if I may say so, led me to this house."
In spite of the hardness which age had given to the wrinkled yellow skin of his face, the old man blushed, for he seemed to have provoked that comparison; though any one who knew his modesty would have been certain he never dreamed of it. Godefroid was aware by this time that Madame de la Chanterie's inmates had no taste for that sort of incense.
"Take him away, Alain!" he added, removing the hand with which he had gagged Godefroid. Then he followed the Abbe de Veze into Madame de la Chanterie's room. "Come!" said Monsieur Alain to Godefroid; "you have made it essential that I should tell you the secrets of Madame's life." They were presently sitting in the old man's room.
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