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A French biographer of Madame de Stael, who is not only an excellent critic and an extremely clever writer, but a historian of great weight and acuteness, M. Albert Sorel, has indeed admitted that both Léonce, the hero of Delphine, who will not make himself and his beloved happy because he has an objection to divorcing his wife, and Lord Nelvil, who refuses either to seduce or to marry the woman who loves him and whom he loves, are equal donkeys with a national difference.
And as it was simply a family gathering there was no embarrassment on the part of the mothers. Marianne took Benjamin on her knees in the shade of the oak tree, and Charlotte placed herself with Guillaume on her right hand; while, on her left, Andree seated herself with little Leonce, who had been weaned a week previously, but was still very fond of caresses.
After the opera Sir Reginald and Hector Leonce accompanied Madame Durski to her apartments in the Rue du Faubourg, St. Honore; and there the baronet beheld higher play than he had ever seen before in a private house presided over by a woman.
"She is very handsome," answered Reginald, carelessly; "but hers is a cold style of loveliness too much like a face moulded out of wax." "Wait till you see her animated," replied Hector Leonce. "We will go to her box presently." When the curtain fell on the close of the following act the two men left the stalls, and made their way to Madame Durski's box.
There were twenty-one at table, as has been said; but besides those one-and-twenty there were three very little ones present: Leonce, who at fifteen months had just been weaned, and Benjamin and Guillaume, who still took the breast. Their little carriages had been drawn up near, so that they also belonged to the party, which was thus a round two dozen.
Madame Leonce says that things are awful, for this pistol is always lying about on the table or the mantelpiece; and she daren't dust anywhere near it. But that isn't all. His money " "His money!" echoed Madame Lecoeur, with blazing cheeks. "Well, he's disposed of all his stocks and shares. He's sold everything, and keeps a great heap of gold in a cupboard."
"A heap of gold!" exclaimed La Sarriette in ecstasy. "Yes, a great heap of gold. It covers a whole shelf, and is quite dazzling. Madame Leonce told me that one morning Gavard opened the cupboard in her presence, and that the money quite blinded her, it shone so." There was another pause. The eyes of the three women were blinking as though the dazzling pile of gold was before them.
His was such a green old age that at sixty-seven he still directed his business, in which his sons Leonce and Charles remained simple employes like his sons-in-law the husbands of his daughters, Pauline and Sophie who trembled before him, uncontested king that he remained, obeyed by one and all, grandfather of seven big bearded young men and nine strong young women, through four of whom he had become a great-grandfather even before his elder, the wise Denis.
When they found that you were sleeping they thought it best not to awake you. Any way, I wouldn't have let them. What was I here for?" "I wonder if Leonce will be uneasy!" she speculated, as she seated herself at table. "Of course not; he knows you are with me," Robert replied, as he busied himself among sundry pans and covered dishes which had been left standing on the hearth.
The old owl no longer hooted, and the water-oaks had ceased to moan as they bent their heads. Edna arose, cramped from lying so long and still in the hammock. She tottered up the steps, clutching feebly at the post before passing into the house. "Are you coming in, Leonce?" she asked, turning her face toward her husband. "Yes, dear," he answered, with a glance following a misty puff of smoke.
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