self thoroughly," said the young man in her ear, "you
ought to recover your husband; and I am capable of bringing him back to
you."

The conversation, thus begun, went on till two in the morning, without
allowing Calyste, whose anger was again and again repressed by a look
from Beatrix, to say one word to her in private. La Palferine, though
he did not like Beatrix, showed a superiority of grace, good taste, and
cleverness equal to the evident inferiority of Calyste, who wriggled in
his chair like a worm cut in two, and actually rose three times as if
to box the ears of La Palferine. The third time that he made a dart
forward, the young count said to him, "Are you in pain, monsieur?" in a
manner which sent Calyste back to his chair, where he sat as rigid as a
mile-stone.

The marquise conversed with the ease of a Celimene, pretending to ignore
that Calyste was there. La Palferine had the cleverness to depart after
a brilliant witticism, leaving the two lovers to a quarrel.

Thus, by Maxime's machinations, the fire of discord flamed in the
separate households of Monsieur and of Madame de Rochefide. The next
day, learning the success of this last scene from La Palferine at the
Jockey Club, where the young count was playing whist, Maxime went to
the hotel Schontz to ascertain with what success Aurelie was rowing her
boat.

"My dear," said Madame Schontz, laughing at Maxime's expression, "I am
at an end of my expedients. Rochefide is incurable. I end my career of
gallantry by perceiving that cleverness is a misfortune."

"Explain to me that remark."

"In the first place, my dear friend, I have kept Arthur for the last
week to a regimen of kicks on the shin and perpetual wrangling and
jarring; in short, all we have that is most disagreeable in our
business. 'You are ill,' he says to me with paternal sweetness, 'for I
have been good to you always and I love you to adoration.' 'You are to
blame for one thing, my dear,' I answered; 'you bore me.' 'Well, if I
do, haven't you the wittiest and handsomest young man in Paris to amuse
you?' said the poor man. I was caught. I actually felt I loved him."

"Ah!" said Maxime.

"How could I help it? Feeling is stronger than we; one can't resist such
things. So I changed pedals. I began to entice my judicial wild-boar,
now turned like Arthur to a sheep; I gave him Arthur's sofa. Heavens!
how he bored me. But, you understand, I had to have Fabien there to let
Arthur surprise us."