Remember my
orders."

Madame du Tillet left the room.

"She will disobey me, of course, and I shall find out all the facts by
watching her," thought du Tillet, when alone in the boudoir. "These poor
fools always think they can do battle against us."

He shrugged his shoulders and rejoined his wife, or to speak the truth,
his slave.

The confidence made to Madame du Tillet by Madame Felix de Vandenesse is
connected with so many points of the latter's history for the last six
years, that it would be unintelligible without a succinct account of the
principal events of her life.

CHAPTER III. THE HISTORY OF A FORTUNATE WOMAN

Among the remarkable men who owed their destiny to the Restoration, but
whom, unfortunately, the restored monarchy kept, with Martignac, aloof
from the concerns of government, was Felix de Vandenesse, removed, with
several others, to the Chamber of peers during the last days of Charles
X. This misfortune, though, as he supposed, temporary, made him think of
marriage, towards which he was also led, as so many men are, by a sort
of disgust for the emotions of gallantry, those fairy flowers of the
soul. There comes a vital moment to most of us when social life appears
in all its soberness.

Felix de Vandenesse had been in turn happy and unhappy, oftener unhappy
than happy, like men who, at their start in life, have met with Love in
its most perfect form. Such privileged beings can never subsequently be
satisfied; but, after fully experiencing life, and comparing characters,
they attain to a certain contentment, taking refuge in a spirit of
general indulgence. No one deceives them, for they delude themselves no
longer; but their resignation, their disillusionment is always graceful;
they expect what comes, and therefor they suffer less. Felix might
still rank among the handsomest and most agreeable men in Paris. He was
originally commended to many women by one of the noblest creatures of
our epoch, Madame de Mortsauf, who had died, it was said, out of love
and grief for him; but he was specially trained for social life by the
handsome and well-known Lady Dudley.

In the eyes of many Parisian women, Felix, a sort of hero of romance,
owed much of his success to the evil that was said of him. Madame de
Manerville had closed the list of his amorous adventures; and perhaps
her dismissal had something to do with his frame of mind. At any rate,
without being in any way a Don Juan, he had gathere