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Updated: June 15, 2025
Everyone took leave at an early hour, and when all had gone, when the child was in her bed, the lamps were extinguished, the servants gone to their own quarters, the Comte de Guilleroy, walking across the drawing-room, lighted now by only two candles, detained for a long time the Countess, who was half asleep in an armchair, to tell her of his hopes, to suggest the attitude for themselves to assume, to forecast all combinations, the chances and the precautions to be taken.
"Was that all you had to say to me?" Madame de Guilleroy murmured to him. He smiled. "Don't be vexed with me. You know that music hypnotizes me; it drinks my thoughts. I will talk soon." "I must tell you," said the Countess, "that I had studied something for you before mamma's death.
Odors of frying, of sauces, of hot food, floated in the slight breezes from the chestnut-trees, and when a woman passed, seeing her reserved chair, followed by a man in a black coat, she diffused on her way the fresh perfume of her dress and her person. Guilleroy, who was radiant, murmured: "Oh, I like to be here much better than in the country!"
The Duchess, furious, tried to make her swallow some mineral water, but in vain; then she exclaimed: "Oh, the little simpleton! That daughter of hers will turn her head. I beg of you, Guilleroy, prevent your wife from committing this folly." The Count, who was explaining to Musadieu the system of a threshing-machine invented in America, had not been listening. "What folly, Duchess?"
She descended at the exact hour, astonished to find herself so calm, and awaited her husband with her ordinary demeanor. He appeared, carrying their little one in his arms; she pressed his hand and kissed the child, and felt no pang of anguish. Monsieur de Guilleroy inquired what she had been doing. She replied indifferently that she had been posing, as usual.
Happy to hear her spoken of, but jealous of that intimate happiness which Guilleroy praised as a matter of duty, the painter finally murmured, with sincere conviction: "Yes, indeed, you were the lucky one!" The Deputy, flattered, assented to this; then he resumed: "I should like very much to see her return; indeed, I am a little anxious about her just now.
This surprise, although it flattered him, also wounded him, for it indicated a certain social barrier. The admirable and ceremonious gravity of the painter a little annoyed Madame de Guilleroy, who could find nothing to say to this man, so cold, yet with a reputation for cleverness.
He came now every time that he knew they were alone, and never, perhaps, had he passed such delightful evenings. Madame de Guilleroy, whose continual fears were soothed by this assiduity, made fresh efforts to attract him and to keep him near her.
According to Musadieu, the Corbelles, and the Comte de Guilleroy, the Countess and her daughter resembled each other only in coloring, in the hair, and above all in the eyes, which were exactly alike, both showing tiny black points, like minute drops of ink, on the blue iris. But it was their opinion that when the young girl should have become a woman they would no longer resemble each other.
M. de Guilleroy concluded in a tone of profound conviction: "He is a great man, a very great man, who desires peace, but who has faith only in menaces and violent means as the way to obtain it. In short, gentlemen, a great barbarian." "He that wishes the end must take the means," M. de Musadieu replied.
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