hat several
papas and mammas should figure in the same quadrille; and she herself
with the Scottish lad danced _vis-a-vis_ to her daughter, who beamed
with pride and joy. In the evolutions of the last figure, where Nais had
to take her mother's hand, she said, pressing it passionately,--

"Poor mamma! if it hadn't been for _him_, you wouldn't have me now."

This sudden reminder so agitated Madame de l'Estorade, coming as it did
unexpectedly, that she was seized with a return of the nervous trembling
her daughter's danger had originally caused, and was forced to sit down.
Seeing her change color, Sallenauve, Nais, and Madame Octave de Camps
ran to her to know if she were ill.

"It is nothing," she answered, addressing Sallenauve; "only that my
little girl reminded me suddenly of the utmost obligation we are under
to you, monsieur. 'Without _him_,' she said, 'you would not have me.'
Ah! monsieur, without your generous courage where would my child be
now?"

"Come, come, don't excite yourself," interposed Madame Octave de Camps,
observing the convulsive and almost gasping tone of her friend's voice.
"It is not reasonable to put yourself in such a state for a child's
speech."

"She is better than the rest of us," replied Madame de l'Estorade,
taking Nais in her arms.

"Come, mamma, be reasonable," said that young lady.

"She puts nothing in the world," continued Madame de l'Estorade, "before
her gratitude to her preserver, whereas her father and I have scarcely
shown him any."

"But, madame," said Sallenauve, "you have courteously--"

"Courteously!" interrupted Nais, shaking her pretty head with an air of
disapproval; "if any one had saved my daughter, I should be different to
him from that."

"Nais," said Madame de Camps, sternly, "children should be silent when
their opinion is not asked."

"What is the matter," said Monsieur de l'Estorade, joining the group.

"Nothing," said Madame de Camps; "only a giddiness Renee had in
dancing."

"Is it over?"

"Yes, I am quite well again," said Madame de l'Estorade.

"Then come and say good-night to Madame de Rastignac, who is preparing
to take leave."

In his eagerness to get to the minister's wife, he forgot to give
his own wife his arm. Sallenauve was more thoughtful. As they walked
together in the wake of her husband, Madame de l'Estorade said,--

"I saw you talking for a long time with Monsieur de Rastignac; did he
practise his well-known seductions upon yo