mean to stay at
Sancerre and swell the number of your _cavalieri serventi_. I feel so
young again in my native district; I have quite forgotten Paris and all
its wickedness, and its bores, and its wearisome pleasures.--Yes, my
life seems in a way purified."

Dinah allowed Lousteau to talk without even looking at him; but at
last there was a moment when this serpent's rhodomontade was really so
inspired by the effort he made to affect passion in phrases and ideas of
which the meaning, though hidden from Gatien, found a loud response
in Dinah's heart, that she raised her eyes to his. This look seemed to
crown Lousteau's joy; his wit flowed more freely, and at last he
made Madame de la Baudraye laugh. When, under circumstances which so
seriously compromise her pride, a woman has been made to laugh, she is
finally committed.

As they drove in by the spacious graveled forecourt, with its lawn in
the middle, and the large vases filled with flowers which so well set
off the facade of Anzy, the journalist was saying:

"When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they
do not love, they cannot forgive anything--not even our virtues.--Do you
forgive me," he added in Madame de la Baudraye's ear, and pressing her
arm to his heart with tender emphasis. And Dinah could not help smiling.

All through dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Etienne was in the
most delightful spirits, inexhaustibly cheerful; but while thus
giving vent to his intoxication, he now and then fell into the dreamy
abstraction of a man who seems rapt in his own happiness.

After coffee had been served, Madame de la Baudraye and her mother left
the men to wander about the gardens. Monsieur Gravier then remarked to
Monsieur de Clagny:

"Did you observe that Madame de la Baudraye, after going out in a muslin
gown came home in a velvet?"

"As she got into the carriage at Cosne, the muslin dress caught on a
brass nail and was torn all the way down," replied Lousteau.

"Oh!" exclaimed Gatien, stricken to the heart by hearing two such
different explanations.

The journalist, who understood, took Gatien by the arm and pressed it
as a hint to him to be silent. A few minutes later Etienne left Dinah's
three adorers and took possession of little La Baudraye. Then Gatien
was cross-questioned as to the events of the day. Monsieur Gravier and
Monsieur de Clagny were dismayed to hear that on the return from Cosne
Lousteau had been alone with Di