l, into which
they have entered.

Each of the two old bachelors had fully understood the situation in
which Mademoiselle Cormon was about to find herself; consequently, each
resolved to call in the course of that morning to ask after her health,
and take occasion, in bachelor language, to "press his point." Monsieur
de Valois considered that such an occasion demanded a painstaking
toilet; he therefore took a bath and groomed himself with extraordinary
care. For the first and last time Cesarine observed him putting on with
incredible art a suspicion of rouge. Du Bousquier, on the other hand,
that coarse republican, spurred by a brisk will, paid no attention to
his dress, and arrived the first.

Such little things decide the fortunes of men, as they do of empires.
Kellerman's charge at Marengo, Blucher's arrival at Waterloo, Louis
XIV.'s disdain for Prince Eugene, the rector of Denain,--all these great
causes of fortune or catastrophe history has recorded; but no one
ever profits by them to avoid the small neglects of their own life.
Consequently, observe what happens: the Duchesse de Langeais (see
"History of the Thirteen") makes herself a nun for the lack of ten
minutes' patience; Judge Popinot (see "Commission in Lunacy") puts off
till the morrow the duty of examining the Marquis d'Espard; Charles
Grandet (see "Eugenie Grandet") goes to Paris from Bordeaux instead of
returning by Nantes; and such events are called chance or fatality! A
touch of rouge carefully applied destroyed the hopes of the Chevalier de
Valois; could that nobleman perish in any other way? He had lived by the
Graces, and he was doomed to die by their hand. While the chevalier was
giving this last touch to his toilet the rough du Bousquier was entering
the salon of the desolate old maid. This entrance produced a thought
in Mademoiselle Cormon's mind which was favorable to the republican,
although in all other respects the Chevalier de Valois held the
advantages.

"God wills it!" she said piously, on seeing du Bousquier.

"Mademoiselle, you will not, I trust, think my eagerness importunate. I
could not trust to my stupid Rene to bring news of your condition, and
therefore I have come myself."

"I am perfectly recovered," she replied, in a tone of emotion. "I thank
you, Monsieur du Bousquier," she added, after a slight pause, and in a
significant tone of voice, "for the trouble you have taken, and for that
which I gave you yesterday--"

She rem