he
one preferred. But, in the present case, your letters have a radical
fault, a nullity, as the lawyers say. You have too much good sense, I
am sure, to complain of a husband who takes back his wife. Monsieur de
Rochefide has felt that the position of the marquise was undignified.
You will, therefore, no longer find Madame de Rochefide in the rue de
Chartres, but--six months hence, next winter--in the hotel de Rochefide.
You flung yourself rather heedlessly into the midst of a reconciliation
between husband and wife,--which you provoked yourself by not saving
Madame de Rochefide from the humiliation to which she was subjected at
the Opera. On coming away, the marquise, to whom I had already carried
certain amicable proposals from her husband, took me up in her carriage,
and her first words were, 'Bring Arthur back to me!'"

"Ah! yes," cried Calyste, "she was right; I was wanting in true
devotion."

"Unhappily, monsieur, Rochefide was living with one of those atrocious
women, Madame Schontz, who had long been expecting him to leave her.
She had counted on Madame de Rochefide's failure in health, and expected
some day to see herself marquise; finding her castles in the air thus
scattered, she determined to revenge herself on husband and wife. Such
women, monsieur, will put out one of their own eyes to put out two of
their enemy. La Schontz, who has just left Paris, has put out six! If I
had had the imprudence to love the marquise, Madame Schontz would have
put out eight. You see now that you are in need of an oculist."

Maxime could not help smiling at the change that came over Calyste's
face; which turned deadly pale as his eyes were opened to his situation.

"Would you believe, Monsieur le baron, that that unworthy woman has
given her hand to the man who furnished the means for her revenge? Ah!
these women! You can understand now why Arthur and his wife should
have retired for a time to their delightful little country-house at
Nogent-sur-Marne. They'll recover their eyesight there. During their
stay in the country the hotel de Rochefide is to be renovated, and the
marquise intends to display on her return a princely splendor. When a
woman so noble, the victim of conjugal love, finds courage to return to
her duty, the part of a man who adores her as you do, and admires her as
I admire her, is to remain her friend although we can do nothing
more. You will excuse me, I know, for having made Monsieur le Comte de
Traill