-Jacques Rousseau was the first
to have the courage to diagnose. In one, it is a last reflexion of the
ray divine that is not extinct; in the other, it is the last remains of
our primitive clay.

This claw of the beast was rapped, this hair of the devil was pulled
by Nathan with extreme cleverness. The marquise began to ask herself
seriously if, up to the present time, she had not been the dupe of her
head, and whether her education was complete. Vice--what is it? Possibly
only the desire to know everything.

XXVI. DISILLUSIONS--IN ALL BUT LA FONTAINE'S FABLES

The next day Calyste seemed to Beatrix just what he was: a perfect
and loyal gentleman without imagination or cleverness. In Paris, a man
called clever must have spontaneous brilliancy, as the fountains have
water; men of the world and Parisians in general are in that way very
clever. But Calyste loved too deeply, he was too much absorbed in his
own sentiments to perceive the change in Beatrix, and to satisfy her
need by displaying new resources. To her, he seemed pale indeed, after
the brilliancy of the night before, and he caused not the faintest
emotion to the hungry Beatrix. A great love is a credit opened to a
power so voracious that bankruptcy is sure to come sooner or later.

In spite of the fatigue of this day (the day when a woman is bored by a
lover) Beatrix trembled with fear at the thought of a possible meeting
between La Palferine and Calyste, a man of courage without assertion.
She hesitated to see the count again; but the knot of her hesitation was
cut by a decisive event.

Beatrix had taken the third of a box at the Opera, obscurely situated on
the lower tier for the purpose of not being much in sight. For the last
few days Calyste, grown bolder, had escorted the marquise to her box,
placing himself behind her, and timing their arrival at a late hour so
as to meet no one in the corridors. Beatrix, on these occasions, left
the box alone before the end of the last act, and Calyste followed at
a distance to watch over her, although old Antoine was always there to
attend his mistress. Maxime and La Palferine had studied this strategy,
which was prompted by respect for the proprieties, also by that desire
for concealment which characterizes the idolators of the little god,
and also, again, by the fear which oppresses all women who have been
constellations in the world and whom love has caused to fall from their
zodiacal eminence. Public humi