rsons, he heard
the remarks of all the dancers who from time to time in the mazes of the
quadrille took the place of Mademoiselle de Verneuil and her partner.

"Positively, madame, she came alone," said one.

"She must be a bold woman," replied the lady.

"If I were dressed like that I should feel myself naked," said another
woman.

"Oh, the gown is not decent, certainly," replied her partner; "but it is
so becoming, and she is so handsome."

"I am ashamed to look at such perfect dancing, for her sake; isn't it
exactly that of an opera girl?" said the envious woman.

"Do you suppose that she has come here to intrigue for the First
Consul?" said another.

"A joke if she has," replied the partner.

"Well, she can't offer innocence as a dowry," said the lady, laughing.

The Gars turned abruptly to see the lady who uttered this sarcasm, and
Madame du Gua looked at him as if to say, "You see what people think of
her."

"Madame," said the count, laughing, "so far, it is only women who have
taken her innocence away from her."

The marquis privately forgave the count. When he ventured to look at his
mistress, whose beauty was, like that of most women, brought into relief
by the light of the wax candles, she turned her back upon him as she
resumed her place, and went on talking to her partner in a way to let
the marquis hear the sweetest and most caressing tones of her voice.

"The First Consul sends dangerous ambassadors," her partner was saying.

"Monsieur," she replied, "you all said that at La Vivetiere."

"You have the memory of a king," replied he, disconcerted at his own
awkwardness.

"To forgive injuries one must needs remember them," she said quickly,
relieving his embarrassment with a smile.

"Are we all included in that amnesty?" said the marquis, approaching
her.

But she darted away in the dance, with the gaiety of a child, leaving
him without an answer. He watched her coldly and sadly; she saw it, and
bent her head with one of those coquettish motions which the graceful
lines of her throat enabled her to make, omitting no movement or
attitude which could prove to him the perfection of her figure. She
attracted him like hope, and eluded him like a memory. To see her thus
was to desire to possess her at any cost. She knew that, and the
sense it gave her of her own beauty shed upon her whole person an
inexpressible charm. The marquis felt the storm of love, of rage, of
madness, rising in his hear