better the
significance of the step which M. de Villefort had taken. Standing well
at court, whether the king regnant was of the older or younger branch,
whether the government was doctrinaire liberal, or conservative; looked
upon by all as a man of talent, since those who have never experienced
a political check are generally so regarded; hated by many, but warmly
supported by others, without being really liked by anybody, M. de
Villefort held a high position in the magistracy, and maintained
his eminence like a Harlay or a Mole. His drawing-room, under the
regenerating influence of a young wife and a daughter by his first
marriage, scarcely eighteen, was still one of the well-regulated Paris
salons where the worship of traditional customs and the observance of
rigid etiquette were carefully maintained. A freezing politeness,
a strict fidelity to government principles, a profound contempt for
theories and theorists, a deep-seated hatred of ideality,--these were
the elements of private and public life displayed by M. de Villefort.

He was not only a magistrate, he was almost a diplomatist. His relations
with the former court, of which he always spoke with dignity and
respect, made him respected by the new one, and he knew so many
things, that not only was he always carefully considered, but sometimes
consulted. Perhaps this would not have been so had it been possible to
get rid of M. de Villefort; but, like the feudal barons who rebelled
against their sovereign, he dwelt in an impregnable fortress. This
fortress was his post as king's attorney, all the advantages of which
he exploited with marvellous skill, and which he would not have resigned
but to be made deputy, and thus to replace neutrality by opposition.
Ordinarily M. de Villefort made and returned very few visits. His wife
visited for him, and this was the received thing in the world, where the
weighty and multifarious occupations of the magistrate were accepted as
an excuse for what was really only calculated pride, a manifestation of
professed superiority--in fact, the application of the axiom, "Pretend
to think well of yourself, and the world will think well of you," an
axiom a hundred times more useful in society nowadays than that of the
Greeks, "Know thyself," a knowledge for which, in our days, we have
substituted the less difficult and more advantageous science of knowing
others.

To his friends M. de Villefort was a powerful protector; to his enemies,