r been compromised, and he determined to take his
wife into general society without fear of its becoming so. His former
mistresses could scarcely recognize the bride they had thought so
childish in the elegant, witty, and gentle countess, who now appeared
in society with the exquisite manners of the highest female aristocracy.
Mesdames d'Espard, de Manerville, and Lady Dudley, with others less
known, felt the serpent waking up in the depths of their hearts; they
heard the low hissings of angry pride; they were jealous of Felix's
happiness, and would gladly have given their prettiest jewel to do him
some harm; but instead of being hostile to the countess, these kind,
ill-natured women surrounded her, showed her the utmost friendship, and
praised her to me. Sufficiently aware of their intentions, Felix watched
their relations with Marie, and warned her to distrust them. They all
suspected the uneasiness of the count at their intimacy with his wife,
and they redoubled their attentions and flatteries, so that they gave
her an enormous vogue in society, to the great displeasure of her
sister-in-law, the Marquise de Listomere, who could not understand it.
The Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse was cited as the most charming and
the cleverest woman in Paris. Marie's other sister-in-law, the Marquise
Charles de Vandenesse, was consumed with vexation at the confusion
of names and the comparisons it sometimes brought about. Though the
marquise was a handsome and clever woman, her rivals took delight in
comparing her with her sister-in-law, with all the more point because
the countess was a dozen years younger. These women knew very well what
bitterness Marie's social vogue would bring into her intercourse with
both of her sisters-in-law, who, in fact, became cold and disobliging
in proportion to her triumph in society. She was thus surrounded by
dangerous relations and intimate enemies.

Every one knows that French literature at that particular period was
endeavoring to defend itself against an apathetic indifference (the
result of the political drama) by producing works more or less Byronian,
in which the only topics really discussed were conjugal delinquencies.
Infringements of the marriage tie formed the staple of reviews, books,
and dramas. This eternal subject grew more and more the fashion. The
lover, that nightmare of husbands, was everywhere, except perhaps in
homes, where, in point of fact, under the bourgeois regime, he was le