more
susceptible than people imagine to the subtle influences of ideas;
they never make game of real dignity; they feel the charm of real
graciousness, and beauty attracts them, for childhood itself is
beautiful, and there are mysterious ties between things of the same
nature.

"Mlle. d'Esgrignon was one of my religions. To this day I can never
climb the staircase of some old manor-house but my foolish imagination
must needs picture Mlle. Armande standing there, like the spirit of
feudalism. I can never read old chronicles but she appears before my
eyes in the shape of some famous woman of old times; she is Agnes Sorel,
Marie Touchet, Gabrielle; and I lend her all the love that was lost in
her heart, all the love that she never expressed. The angel shape seen
in glimpses through the haze of childish fancies visits me now sometimes
across the mists of dreams."

Keep this portrait in mind; it is a faithful picture and sketch of
character. Mlle. d'Esgrignon is one of the most instructive figures in
this story; she affords an example of the mischief that may be done by
the purest goodness for lack of intelligence.

Two-thirds of the emigres returned to France during 1804 and 1805, and
almost every exile from the Marquis d'Esgrignon's province came back to
the land of his fathers. There were certainly defections. Men of good
birth entered the service of Napoleon, and went into the army or held
places at the Imperial court, and others made alliances with the upstart
families. All those who cast in their lots with the Empire retrieved
their fortunes and recovered their estates, thanks to the Emperor's
munificence; and these for the most part went to Paris and stayed there.
But some eight or nine families still remained true to the proscribed
noblesse and loyal to the fallen monarchy. The La Roche-Guyons,
Nouastres, Verneuils, Casterans, Troisvilles, and the rest were some of
them rich, some of them poor; but money, more or less, scarcely counted
for anything among them. They took an antiquarian view of themselves;
for them the age and preservation of the pedigree was the one
all-important matter; precisely as, for an amateur, the weight of
metal in a coin is a small matter in comparison with clean lettering,
a flawless stamp, and high antiquity. Of these families, the Marquis
d'Esgrignon was the acknowledged head. His house became their cenacle.
There His Majesty, Emperor and King, was never anything but "M. de
Bonapar