ess--Mademoiselle Adrienne Lecouvreur, and the
other one was Mademoiselle Francezka Capello--that star-like creature
whose beauty, whose riches, whose airy high spirit, whose strange,
brilliant story, laid her open to peculiar dangers. Yet, toward
Mademoiselle Capello, Count Saxe behaved with the most delicate
chivalry during the whole of her eventful life. And he forwarded the
love of Mademoiselle Capello and Gaston Cheverny with the noblest
disinterestedness.

Count Saxe had a taste not common among soldiers. He liked to hear
sermons read--good sermons, that is, by the great guns of the pulpit,
like Bossuet. I often read them to him, and have been compelled to
chastise several persons who thought this matter food for mirth.

It seems to me sometimes as if I had never known but one man and one
woman in my life--Count Saxe and Francezka Capello; they alone reached
the ideal heights, in my mind--for a Tatar prince and the son of a
poor notary has his ideals, just the same as a duke and the son of a
duke--and the fact that I was a private soldier before I became a
Tatar prince and a captain of Uhlans has nothing to do with the
matter. It may be that Mademoiselle Capello, who had a combination of
Scotch and Spanish pride, won me with the most delicate flattery in
the world by honoring me with her regard--and Babache, the Tatar, was
often smiled on, when dukes and marquises were scowled at, terribly.
Of course, I knew that the very difference in our rank made this
possible; and I had a cross eye which stood as a sentinel in my face,
to warn Love away.

Only in my dreams, did I breathe of love to Mademoiselle Capello; and
in those soft and splendid visions in the mysterious night and under
the earnest stars which seemed then so near and so kind, Francezka
often smiled upon me--nay, even kissed me.

But it was only a dream. At all times, though, I was hers, soul and
body, with a doglike devotion--and in the end, I was given to her, in
a singular manner, by Count Saxe. She lavished upon me, from the
beginning, many kind and familiar speeches and acts; and I would have
died rather than throw away, by so much as one word of folly, the
treasure of her confidence and friendship. I took with thankfulness
what she gave me--and was not such a fool as to ask for more.

The very first time I saw Mademoiselle Capello was unforgettable for
more reasons than one. It was the first and most serious of those
adventures into which her s