e mother Gigogne! After bombarding Louis with queries,
exclamations, and regrets, I at last defeated his strategy so far as to
discover that his grand-uncle, the godfather of Athenais, is very ill.
Now I believe that you, like a careful mother, would be quite equal to
angling with the member's speeches and fame for a fat legacy from your
husband's last remaining relative on the mother's side. Keep your mind
easy, my Renee--we are all at work for Louis, Lenoncourts, Chaulieus,
and the whole band of Mme. de Macumer's followers. Martignac will
probably put him into the audit department. But if you won't tell me why
you bury yourself in the country, I shall be cross.

Tell me, are you afraid that the political wisdom of the house of
l'Estorade should seem to centre in you? Or is it the uncle's legacy?
Perhaps you were afraid you would be less to your children in Paris? Ah!
what I would give to know whether, after all, you were not simply
too vain to show yourself in Paris for the first time in your present
condition! Vain thing! Farewell.

XLV. RENEE TO LOUISE

You complain of my silence; have you forgotten, then, those two little
brown heads, at once my subjects and my tyrants? And as to staying at
home, you have yourself hit upon several of my reasons. Apart from the
condition of our dear uncle, I didn't want to drag with me to Paris a
boy of four and a little girl who will soon be three, when I am again
expecting my confinement. I had no intention of troubling you and
upsetting your husband with such a party. I did not care to appear,
looking my worst, in the brilliant circle over which you preside, and I
detest life in hotels and lodgings.

When I come to spend the session in Paris, it will be in my own house.
Louis' uncle, when he heard of the rank his grand-nephew had received,
made me a present of two hundred thousand francs (the half of his
savings) with which to buy a house in Paris, and I have charged Louis
to find one in your neighborhood. My mother has given me thirty thousand
francs for the furnishing, and I shall do my best not to disgrace the
dear sister of my election--no pun intended.

I am grateful to you for having already done so much at Court for
Louis. But though M. de Bourmont and M. de Polignac have paid him
the compliment of asking him to join their ministry, I do not wish so
conspicuous a place for him. It would commit him too much; and I prefer
the Audit Office because it is permanent.