ss's eyes. As for older men, if during the paroxysms of early
passion in youth they had experience of such phenomena of nervous power;
at a later day it is so completely forgotten that they deny the very
existence of the luxuriant ecstasy--the only name that can be given to
these wonderful intuitions. Religious ecstasy is the aberration of a
soul that has shaken off its bonds of flesh; whereas in amorous ecstasy
all the forces of soul and body are embraced and blended in one. If
a woman falls a victim to the tyrannous frenzy before which Mme de
Langeais was forced to bend, she will take one decisive resolution
after another so swiftly that it is impossible to give account of them.
Thought after thought rises and flits across her brain, as clouds are
whirled by the wind across the grey veil of mist that shuts out the sun.
Thenceforth the facts reveal all. And the facts are these.

The day after the review, Mme de Langeais sent her carriage and liveried
servants to wait at the Marquis de Montriveau's door from eight o'clock
in the morning till three in the afternoon. Armand lived in the Rue de
Tournon, a few steps away from the Chamber of Peers, and that very
day the House was sitting; but long before the peers returned to their
palaces, several people had recognised the Duchess's carriage and
liveries. The first of these was the Baron de Maulincour. That young
officer had met with disdain from Mme de Langeais and a better reception
from Mme de Serizy; he betook himself at once therefore to his mistress,
and under seal of secrecy told her of this strange freak.

In a moment the news was spread with telegraphic speed through all the
coteries in the Faubourg Saint-Germain; it reached the Tuileries and the
Elysee-Bourbon; it was the sensation of the day, the matter of all the
talk from noon till night. Almost everywhere the women denied the facts,
but in such a manner that the report was confirmed; the men one and
all believed it, and manifested a most indulgent interest in Mme de
Langeais. Some among them threw the blame on Armand.

"That savage of a Montriveau is a man of bronze," said they; "he
insisted on making this scandal, no doubt."

"Very well, then," others replied, "Mme de Langeais has been guilty of
a most generous piece of imprudence. To renounce the world and rank, and
fortune, and consideration for her lover's sake, and that in the face
of all Paris, is as fine a _coup d'etat_ for a woman as that barber's
k