e of a Christian
is a struggle, but that of a woman married in a certain way is a pitched
battle. Have patience and courage."

So saying, the two friends separated.

The next day, about two o'clock, Madame de l'Estorade, accompanied by
her husband and Madame Octave de Camps, took their places in the gallery
reserved for the members of the peerage. She seemed ill, and answered
languidly the bows and salutations that were addressed to her from all
parts of the Chamber. Madame de Camps, who was present for the first
time in the parliamentary precincts, made two observations: first,
she objected strongly to the slovenly costume of a great many of the
"honorable gentlemen"; and she was also amazed at the number of bald
heads she looked down upon from the gallery. Monsieur de l'Estorade took
pains to point out to her all the notabilities present: first, the great
men whom we need not mention, because their names are in everybody's
memory; next, the poet Canalis, whose air she thought Olympian;
d'Arthez, who pleased her by his modesty and absence of assumption;
Vinet, of whom she remarked that he was like a viper in spectacles;
Victorin Hulot, a noted orator of the Left Centre. It was some
time before she could accustom herself to the hum of the various
conversations, which seemed to her like the buzzing of bees around their
hive; but the thing that most amazed her was the general aspect of this
assemblage of legislators, where a singular _laisser-aller_ and a total
absence of dignity would never have led her to suppose she was in the
hall of the representatives of a great people.

It was written that on this day no pain or unpleasantness should be
spared to Madame de l'Estorade. Just before the sitting began, the
Marquise d'Espard, accompanied by Monsieur de Ronquerolles, entered the
peers' gallery and took her seat beside the countess. Though meeting
constantly in society, the two women could not endure each other.
Madame de l'Estorade despised the spirit of intrigue, the total lack of
principle, and the sour, malevolent nature which the marquise covered
with an elegant exterior; and the marquise despised, to a still
greater degree, what she called the _pot-au-feu_ virtues of Madame de
l'Estorade. It must also be mentioned that Madame de l'Estorade was
thirty-two years old and her beauty was still undimmed, whereas Madame
d'Espard was forty-four, and, in spite of the careful dissimulations of
the toilet, her beauty was fa