ame Gorka, amicably surprised for Chapron and
Madame Maitland, familiar and confiding for her old friend, as she
called the Baron. She was evidently the soul of the small party, for her
mere presence seemed to have caused animation to sparkle in every eye.

All talked at once, and she replied, as they walked toward the
carriages, which waited in a court of honor capable of holding seventy
gala chariots. One after the other these carriages advanced. The horses
pawed the ground; the harnesses shone; the footmen and coachmen were
dressed in perfect liveries; the porter of the Palais Castagna, with his
long redingote, on the buttons of which were the symbolical chestnuts
of the family, had beneath his laced hat such a dignified bearing that
Julien suddenly found it absurd to have imagined an impassioned drama
in connection with such people. The last one left, while watching the
others depart, he once more experienced the sensation so common to those
who are familiar with the worst side of the splendor of society and who
perceive in them the moral misery and ironical gayety.

"You are becoming a great simpleton, my friend, Dorsenne," said he,
seating himself more democratically in one of those open cabs called
in Rome a botte. "To fear a tragical adventure for the woman who is
mistress of herself to such a degree is something like casting one's
self into the water to prevent a shark from drowning. If she had
not upon her lips Maitland's kisses, and in her eyes the memory of
happiness, I am very much mistaken. She came from a rendezvous. It was
written for me, in her toilette, in the color upon her cheeks, in her
tiny shoes, easy to remove, which had not taken thirty steps. And with
what mastery she uttered her string of falsehoods! Her daughter, Madame
Gorka, Madame Maitland, how quickly she included them all! That is why
I do not like the theatre, where one finds the actress who employs that
tone to utter her: 'Is the master not here?'"

He laughed aloud, then his thoughts, relieved of all anxiety, took a new
course, and, using the word of German origin familiar to Cosmopolitans,
to express an absurd action, he said: "I have made a pretty schlemylade,
as Hafner would say, in relating to Florent Gorka's unexpected arrival.
It was just the same as telling him that Maitland was the Countess's
lover. That is a conversation at which I should like to assist, that
which will take place between the two brothers-in-law. Should I be