sought satisfaction
in social triumphs, in capturing political and literary lions in order
to exhibit them in her salon, and in spending money right and left with
a lavish hand. But, after all, in a woman of her temperament none of
these things could satisfy her inner longings. Beautiful, full of
Celtic vivacity, imaginative and eager, such a nature as hers would in
the end be starved unless her heart should be deeply touched and unless
all her pent-up emotion could give itself up entirely in the great
surrender.

After a few years of London she grew restless and dissatisfied. Her
surroundings wearied her. There was a call within her for something
more than she had yet experienced. The earl, her husband, was by nature
no less restless; and so, without knowing the reason--which, indeed,
she herself did not understand--he readily assented to a journey on the
Continent.

As they traveled southward they reached at length the town of Valence,
where Count d'Orsay was still quartered with his regiment. A vague,
indefinable feeling of attraction swept over this woman, who was now a
woman of the world and yet quite inexperienced in affairs relating to
the heart. The mere sound of the French officer's voice, the mere sight
of his face, the mere knowledge of his presence, stirred her as nothing
had ever stirred her until that time. Yet neither he nor she appears to
have been conscious at once of the secret of their liking. It was
enough that they were soothed and satisfied with each other's company.

Oddly enough, the Earl of Blessington became as devoted to D'Orsay as
did his wife. The two urged the count to secure a leave of absence and
to accompany them to Italy. This he was easily persuaded to do; and the
three passed weeks and months of a languorous and alluring intercourse
among the lakes and the seductive influence of romantic Italy. Just
what passed between Count d'Orsay and Margaret Blessington at this time
cannot be known, for the secret of it has perished with them; but it is
certain that before very long they came to know that each was
indispensable to the other.

The situation was complicated by the Earl of Blessington, who, entirely
unsuspicious, proposed that the Count should marry Lady Harriet
Gardiner, his eldest legitimate daughter by his first wife. He pressed
the match upon the embarrassed D'Orsay, and offered to settle the sum
of forty thousand pounds upon the bride. The girl was less than fifteen
years