ive no satisfactory explanation as to the origin
of this sort of tetanus, which passes off as rapidly as it comes on, and
can apparently be neither guarded against nor cured. One thing alone, as
I said before, is certain, that it is hell for a mother to see her child
in convulsions. How passionately do I clasp him to my heart! I could
walk for ever with him in my arms!

To have suffered all this only six weeks before my confinement made it
much worse; I feared for the coming child. Farewell, my dear beloved.
Don't wish for a child--there is the sum and substance of my letter!

XLI. THE BARONNE DE MACUMER TO THE VICOMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE Paris.

Poor sweet,--Macumer and I forgave you all your naughtiness when we
heard of your terrible trouble. I thrilled with pain as I read the
details of the double agony, and there seem compensations now in being
childless.

I am writing at once to tell you that Louis has been promoted. He can
now wear the ribbon of an officer of the Legion. You are a lucky woman,
Renee, and you will probably have a little girl, since that used to be
your wish!

The marriage of my brother with Mlle. de Mortsauf was celebrated on our
return. Our gracious King, who really is extraordinarily kind, has given
my brother the reversion of the post of first gentleman of the chamber,
which his father-in-law now fills, on the one condition that the
scutcheon of the Mortsaufs should be placed side by side with that of
the Lenoncourts.

"The office ought to go with the title," he said to the Duc de
Lenoncourt-Givry.

My father is justified a hundred-fold. Without the help of my fortune
nothing of all this could have taken place. My father and mother came
from Madrid for the wedding, and return there, after the reception which
I give to-morrow for the bride and bridegroom.

The carnival will be a very gay one. The Duc and Duchesse de Soria are
in Paris, and their presence makes me a little uneasy. Marie Heredia is
certainly one of the most beautiful women in Europe, and I don't like
the way Felipe looks at her. Therefore I am doubly lavish of sweetness
and caresses. Every look and gesture speak the words which I am careful
my lips should not utter, "_She_ could not love like this!" Heaven knows
how lovely and fascinating I am! Yesterday Mme. de Maufrigneuse said to
me:

"Dear child, who can compete with you?"

Then I keep Felipe so well amused, that his sister-in-law must seem as
lively as a Spanis