.
Thus, at about that time, Adeline saw that her husband was incredibly
particular about his dress; he dyed his hair and whiskers, and wore a
belt and stays. He was determined to remain handsome at any cost. This
care of his person, a weakness he had once mercilessly mocked at, was
carried out in the minutest details.

At last Adeline perceived that the Pactolus poured out before the
Baron's mistresses had its source in her pocket. In eight years he had
dissipated a considerable amount of money; and so effectually, that, on
his son's marriage two years previously, the Baron had been compelled to
explain to his wife that his pay constituted their whole income.

"What shall we come to?" asked Adeline.

"Be quite easy," said the official, "I will leave the whole of my salary
in your hands, and I will make a fortune for Hortense, and some savings
for the future, in business."

The wife's deep belief in her husband's power and superior talents, in
his capabilities and character, had, in fact, for the moment allayed her
anxiety.

What the Baroness' reflections and tears were after Crevel's departure
may now be clearly imagined. The poor woman had for two years past known
that she was at the bottom of a pit, but she had fancied herself alone
in it. How her son's marriage had been finally arranged she had not
known; she had known nothing of Hector's connection with the grasping
Jewess; and, above all, she hoped that no one in the world knew anything
of her troubles. Now, if Crevel went about so ready to talk of the
Baron's excesses, Hector's reputation would suffer. She could see, under
the angry ex-perfumer's coarse harangue, the odious gossip behind the
scenes which led to her son's marriage. Two reprobate hussies had been
the priestesses of this union planned at some orgy amid the degrading
familiarities of two tipsy old sinners.

"And has he forgotten Hortense!" she wondered.

"But he sees her every day; will he try to find her a husband among his
good-for-nothing sluts?"

At this moment it was the mother that spoke rather than the wife, for
she saw Hortense laughing with her Cousin Betty--the reckless laughter
of heedless youth; and she knew that such hysterical laughter was quite
as distressing a symptom as the tearful reverie of solitary walks in the
garden.

Hortense was like her mother, with golden hair that waved naturally,
and was amazingly long and thick. Her skin had the lustre of
mother-of-pearl. She w