a flower), the princess
had wisely chosen a ground-floor apartment; there she enjoyed a pretty
little garden which belonged to it,--a garden full of shrubs, and an
always verdant turf, which brightened her peaceful retreat. She had
about twelve thousand francs a year; but that modest income was partly
made up of an annual stipend sent her by the old Duchesse de Navarreins,
paternal aunt of the young duke, and another stipend given by her
mother, the Duchesse d'Uxelles, who was living on her estate in the
country, where she economized as old duchesses alone know how to
economize; for Harpagon is a mere novice compared to them. The princess
still retained some of her past relations with the exiled royal family;
and it was in her house that the marshal to whom we owe the conquest of
Africa had conferences, at the time of "Madame's" attempt in La Vendee,
with the principal leaders of legitimist opinion,--so great was the
obscurity in which the princess lived, and so little distrust did the
government feel for her in her present distress.

Beholding the approach of that terrible fortieth year, the bankruptcy of
love, beyond which there is so little for a woman as woman, the princess
had flung herself into the kingdom of philosophy. She took to reading,
she who for sixteen years had felt a cordial horror for serious things.
Literature and politics are to-day what piety and devotion once were
to her sex,--the last refuge of their feminine pretensions. In her
late social circle it was said that Diane was writing a book. Since
her transformation from a queen and beauty to a woman of intellect, the
princess had contrived to make a reception in her little house a great
honor which distinguished the favored person. Sheltered by her supposed
occupation, she was able to deceive one of her former adorers, de
Marsay, the most influential personage of the political bourgeoisie
brought to the fore in July 1830. She received him sometimes in the
evenings, and, occupied his attention while the marshal and a few
legitimists were talking, in a low voice, in her bedroom, about
the recovery of power, which could be attained only by a general
co-operation of ideas,--the one element of success which all
conspirators overlook. It was the clever vengeance of the pretty woman,
who thus inveigled the prime minister, and made him act as screen for a
conspiracy against his own government.

This adventure, worthy of the finest days of the Fronde, was