the world by placing himself
on a level which he does nothing to maintain. True talent, pains-taking
and honorable talent does not act thus. Men who possess such talent
follow their path courageously; they accept its pains and penalties, and
don't cover them with tinsel."

A woman's thought is endowed with incredible elasticity. When she
receives a knockdown blow, she bends, seems crushed, and then renews her
natural shape in a given time.

"Felix is no doubt right," thought she.

But three days later she was once more thinking of the serpent, recalled
to him by that singular emotion, painful and yet sweet, which the
first sight of Raoul had given her. The count and countess went to Lady
Dudley's grand ball, where, by the bye, de Marsay appeared in society
for the last time. He died about two months later, leaving the
reputation of a great statesman, because, as Blondet remarked, he was
incomprehensible.

Vandenesse and his wife again met Raoul Nathan at this ball, which was
remarkable for the meeting of several personages of the political drama,
who were not a little astonished to find themselves together. It was
one of the first solemnities of the great world. The salons presented
a magnificent spectacle to the eye,--flowers, diamonds, and brilliant
head-dresses; all jewel-boxes emptied; all resources of the toilet put
under contribution. The ball-room might be compared to one of those
choice conservatories where rich horticulturists collect the most superb
rarities,--same brilliancy, same delicacy of texture. On all sides
white or tinted gauzes like the wings of the airiest dragon-fly, crepes,
laces, blondes, and tulles, varied as the fantasies of entomological
nature; dentelled, waved, and scalloped; spider's webs of gold and
silver; mists of silk embroidered by fairy fingers; plumes colored by
the fire of the tropics drooping from haughty heads; pearls twined in
braided hair; shot or ribbed or brocaded silks, as though the genius of
arabesque had presided over French manufactures,--all this luxury was in
harmony with the beauties collected there as if to realize a "Keepsake."
The eye received there an impression of the whitest shoulders, some
amber-tinted, others so polished as to seem colandered, some dewy, some
plump and satiny, as though Rubens had prepared their flesh; in short,
all shades known to man in white. Here were eyes sparkling like onyx or
turquoise fringed with dark lashes; faces of varied outlin