edicate to her. Fully
determined to make her, if not his victim, at least his ally, he
felt that this enterprise was one of unusual difficulty. But he was
energetic, and did not object to difficulties--especially when they took
such charming shape as in the present instance.

His meditations on this theme occupied him agreeably the rest of that
week, during which time he overlooked his workmen and conferred with
his architect. Besides, his horses, his books, his domestics, and his
journals arrived successively to dispel ennui. Therefore he looked
remarkably well when he jumped out of his dog-cart the ensuing Monday
in front of M. des Rameures's door under the eyes of Madame de Tecle.
As the latter gently stroked with her white hand the black and smoking
shoulder of the thoroughbred Fitz-Aymon, Camors was for the first
time presented to the Comte de Tecle, a quiet, sad, and taciturn old
gentleman. The cure, the subprefect of the district and his wife, the
tax-collector, the family physician, and the tutor completed, as the
journals say, the list of the guests.

During dinner Camors, secretly excited by the immediate vicinity
of Madame de Tecle, essayed to triumph over that hostility that the
presence of a stranger invariably excites in the midst of intimacies
which it disturbs. His calm superiority asserted itself so mildly it
was pardoned for its grace. Without a gayety unbecoming his mourning, he
nevertheless made such lively sallies and such amusing jokes about his
first mishaps at Reuilly as to break up the stiffness of the party. He
conversed pleasantly with each one in turn, and, seeming to take the
deepest interest in his affairs, put him at once at his ease.

He skilfully gave M. des Rameures the opportunity for several happy
quotations; spoke naturally to him of artificial pastures, and
artificially of natural pastures; of breeding and of non-breeding cows;
of Dishley sheep--and of a hundred other matters he had that morning
crammed from an old encyclopaedia and a county almanac.

To Madame de Tecle directly he spoke little, but he did not speak one
word during the dinner that was not meant for her; and his manner to
women was so caressing, yet so chivalric, as to persuade them, even
while pouring out their wine, that he was ready to die for them. The
dear charmers thought him a good, simple fellow, while he was the exact
reverse.

On leaving the table they went out of doors to enjoy the starlight
evening,