"These children," said Cousin Betty, looking at Hortense as she up to her, "fancy that no one but themselves can have lovers."
"Listen," Hortense replied, herself alone with her cousin, "if you prove to me that Wenceslas is not a pure invention, I will give you my yellow shawl."
"He is a Count."
"Every Pole is a Count!"
"But he is not a Pole; he comes from Liva—Litha "
"Lithuania?"
"No."
"Livonia?"
"Yes, that's it!"
"But what is his name?"
"I wonder if you are of a secret."
"Cousin Betty, I will be as mute! "
"As a fish?"
"As a fish."
"By your life eternal?"
"By my life eternal!"
"No, by your in this world?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, his name is Wenceslas Steinbock."
"One of Charles XII.‘s Generals was named Steinbock."
"He was his grand-uncle. His own father settled in Livonia after the death of the King of Sweden; but he all his the of 1812, and died, the boy at the age of eight without a penny. The Grand Duke Constantine, for the of the name of Steinbock, took him under his protection and sent him to school."
"I will not my word," Hortense replied; "prove his existence, and you shall have the yellow shawl. The color is most to dark skins."
"And you will keep my secret?"
"And tell you mine."
"Well, then, the next time I come you shall have the proof."
"But the proof will be the lover," said Hortense.
Cousin Betty, who, since her in Paris, had been by a for shawls, was by the idea of owning the yellow to his wife by the Baron in 1808, and from mother to after the manner of some families in 1830. The had been a good ten years ago; but the object, now always in its sandal-wood box, to the old new, like the drawing-room furniture. So she in her handbag a present for the Baroness' birthday, by which she to prove the of her lover.
This present was a seal of three little to back, with foliage, and supporting the Globe. They Faith, Hope, and Charity; their rested on each other, among them the serpent. In 1846, now that such have been in the art of which Benvenuto Cellini was the master, by Mademoiselle de Fauveau, Wagner, Jeanest, Froment-Meurice, and wood-carvers like Lienard, this little would nobody; but at that time a girl who the silversmith's art as she the seal which Lisbeth put into her hands, saying:
"There! what do you think of that?"
In design, attitude, and the were of the of Raphael; but the was in the of the Florentine metal workers—the by Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Benvenuto Cellini, John of Bologna, and others. The French masters of the Renaissance had more than these that the passions. The palms, ferns, reeds, and that the Virtues a style, a taste, a that might have a to despair; a above the three figures; and on its surface, the heads, were a W, a chamois, and the word fecit.
"Who this?" asked Hortense.
"Well, just my lover," Lisbeth. "There are ten months' work in it; I earn more at making sword-knots. He told me that Steinbock means a goat, a chamois, in German. And he to mark all his work in that way. Ah, ha! I shall have the shawl."
"What for?"
"Do you I such a thing, or order it? Impossible! Well, then, it must have been to me. And who would make me such a present? A lover!"
Hortense, with an that would have Lisbeth Fischer if she had it, took not to all her admiration, though she was full of the which every that is open to a of must on a piece of work—perfect and unexpected.
"On my word," said she, "it is very pretty."
"Yes, it is pretty," said her cousin; "but I like an orange-colored better. Well, child, my lover his time in doing such work as that. Since he came to Paris he has out three or four little in that style, and that is the fruit of four years' study and toil. He has as to founders, metal-casters, and goldsmiths. There he has paid away thousands and hundreds of francs. And my tells me that in a months now he will be famous and rich "
"Then you often see him?"
"Bless me, do you think it is all a fable? I told you truth in jest."
"And he is in love with you?" asked Hortense eagerly.
"He me," Lisbeth very seriously. "You see, child, he had any but the out, they all are in the north, and a slender, brown, thing like me his heart. But, mum; you promised, you know!"
"And he will like the five others," said the girl ironically, as she looked at the seal.
"Six others, miss. I left one in Lorraine, who, to this day, would the moon for me."
"This one than that," said Hortense; "he has the sun."
"Where can that be into money?" asked her cousin. "It takes wide lands to by the sunshine."
These witticisms, in quick retort, and leading to the of play that may be imagined, had for the which had added to the Baroness' by making her her daughter's with the present, when she was free to the light-heartedness of youth.
"But to give you a which cost him six months of work, he must be under some great to you?" said Hortense, in the seal had very reflections.
"Oh, you want to know too much at once!" said her cousin. "But, listen, I will let you into a little plot."
"Is your lover in it too?"
"Oh, ho! you want so much to see him! But, as you may suppose, an old like Cousin Betty, who had managed to keep a lover for five years, him well hidden. Now, just let me alone. You see, I have neither cat canary, neither dog a parrot, and the old Nanny Goat wanted something to and tease—so I myself to a Polish Count."
"Has he a moustache?"
"As long as that," said Lisbeth, up her with gold thread. She always took her lace-work with her, and till dinner was served.
"If you ask too many questions, you will be told nothing," she on. "You are but two-and-twenty, and you more than I do though I am forty-two—not to say forty-three."
"I am listening; I am a image," said Hortense.
"My lover has a group ten high," Lisbeth on. "It Samson a lion, and he has it till it is so that you might it to be as old as Samson himself. This piece is at the shop of one of the old sellers on the Place du Carrousel, near my lodgings. Now, your father Monsieur Popinot, the Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, and the Comte de Rastignac, and if he would mention the group to them as a he had by chance! It that such take the of your folks, who don't so much about gold lace, and that my man's would be if one of them would or look at the piece of metal. The is sure that it might be for old work, and that the is a great of money. And then, if one of the ministers should purchase the group, he would go to pay his respects, and prove that he was the maker, and be almost in triumph! Oh! he he has the pinnacle; man, and he is as proud as two newly-made Counts."
"Michael Angelo over again; but, for a lover, he has his on his shoulders!" said Hortense. "And how much he want for it?"
"Fifteen hundred francs. The will not let it go for less, since he must take his commission."
"Papa is in the King's just now," said Hortense. "He sees those two ministers every day at the Chamber, and he will do the thing—I that. You will be a rich woman, Madame la Comtesse de Steinbock."
"No, the boy is too lazy; for whole he with of red wax, and nothing comes of it. Why, he all his days at the Louvre and the Library, looking at prints and sketching things. He is an idler!"
The and giggled; Hortense laughing a laugh, for she was by a of love which every girl has gone through—the love of the unknown, love in its form, when every is some which is by a word, as the of hoar-frost about a that the wind has against the window-sill.
For the past ten months she had a of her cousin's romance, believing, like her mother, that Lisbeth would marry; and now, a week, this being had Comte Wenceslas Steinbock, the had a certificate of birth, the had into a man of thirty. The seal she in her hand—a of Annunciation in which like an light—had the powers of a talisman. Hortense such a of happiness, that she almost the were true; there was a in her blood, and she laughed to her cousin.
"But I think the drawing-room door is open," said Lisbeth; "let us go and see if Monsieur Crevel is gone."
"Mamma has been very much out of these two days. I the marriage under has come to nothing!"
"Oh, it may come on again. He is—I may tell you so much—a Councillor of the Supreme Court. How would you like to be Madame la Presidente? If Monsieur Crevel has a in it, he will tell me about it if I ask him. I shall know by tomorrow if there is any hope."
"Leave the seal with me," said Hortense; "I will not it—mamma's birthday is not for a month yet; I will give it to you that morning."
"No, no. Give it to me; it must have a case."
"But I will let papa see it, that he may know what he is talking about to the ministers, for men in authority must be what they say," the girl.
"Well, do not it to your mother—that is all I ask; for if she I had a lover, she would make game of me."
"I promise."
The the drawing-room just as the Baroness faint. Her daughter's of her to herself. Lisbeth off to some salts. When she came back, she the mother and in each other's arms, the Baroness her daughter's fears, and saying:
"It was nothing; a little attack. There is your father," she added, the Baron's way of the bell. "Say not a word to him."
Adeline rose and to meet her husband, to take him into the garden and talk to him till dinner should be of the about the match, him to come to some as to the future, and trying to hint at some advice.
Baron Hector Hulot came in, in a dress at once lawyer-like and Napoleonic, for Imperial men—men who had been to the Emperor—were easily by their deportment, their with buttons, to the chin, their black stock, and an from a of in rapidity. There was nothing of the old man in the Baron, it must be admitted; his was still so good, that he read without spectacles; his face, in that were too black, a complexion, with the that a temperament; and his stomach, in order by a belt, had not the limits of "the majestic," as Brillat-Savarin says. A air and great to the with Crevel had had such high times. He was one of those men always light up at the of a woman, of such as pass by, to be again.
"Have you been speaking, my dear?" asked Adeline, him with an brow.
"No," Hector, "but I am out with others speak for two hours without to a vote. They on a of words, in which their speeches are like a which has no on the enemy. Talk has taken the place of action, which goes very much against the with men who are to orders, as I said to the Marshal when I left him. However, I have of being on the ministers' bench; here I may play. How do, la Chevre! Good morning, little kid," and he took his the neck, her, and her on his knee, her on his shoulder, that he might her soft against his cheek.
"He is and worried," said his wife to herself. "I shall only worry him more. I will wait. Are you going to be at home this evening?" she asked him.
"No, children. After dinner I must go out. If it had not been the day when Lisbeth and the children and my come to dinner, you would not have me at all."
The Baroness took up the newspaper, looked the list of theatres, and it again when she had that Robert le Diable was to be at the Opera. Josepha, who had left the Italian Opera six months since for the French Opera, was to take the part of Alice.
This little did not the Baron, who looked hard at his wife. Adeline her and out into the garden; her husband her.
"Come, what is it, Adeline?" said he, his arm her and pressing her to his side. "Do not you know that I love you more than "
"More than Jenny Cadine or Josepha!" said she, him.
"Who put that into your head?" the Baron, his wife, and starting a step or two.
"I got an letter, which I at once, in which I was told, my dear, that the Hortense's marriage was off was the of our circumstances. Your wife, my dear Hector, would have said a word; she of your with Jenny Cadine, and did she complain? But as the mother of Hortense, I am to speak the truth."
Hulot, after a silence, which was terrible to his wife, loud to be heard, opened his arms, her to his heart, her forehead, and said with the of enthusiasm:
"Adeline, you are an angel, and I am a "
"No, no," the Baroness, her hand upon his to him from speaking of himself.
"Yes, for I have not at this moment a to give to Hortense, and I am most unhappy. But since you open your to me, I may into it the trouble that is me. Your Uncle Fischer is in difficulties, and it is I who him there, for he has for me to the amount of twenty-five thousand francs! And all for a woman who me, who laughs at me my back, and calls me an old Tom. It is frightful! A which me more than it would to maintain a family! And I cannot resist! I would promise you here and now to see that Jewess again; but if she me two lines, I should go to her, as we into fire under the Emperor."
"Do not be so distressed," the woman in despair, but her as she saw the in her husband's eyes. "There are my diamonds; happens, save my uncle."
"Your diamonds are twenty thousand nowadays. That would not be for old Fischer, so keep them for Hortense; I will see the Marshal tomorrow."
"My dear!" said the Baroness, taking her Hector's hands and them.
This was all the he got. Adeline her jewels, the father them a present to Hortense, she this as a action, and she was helpless.
"He is the master; he take everything, and he me my diamonds; he is divine!"
This was the of her thoughts; and the wife had more by her than another have by a fit of angry jealousy.
The cannot that, as a rule, well-bred though very men are more and than men; having to for, they by anticipation, by being to the of those who judge them, and they are most kind. Though there are no some people among the virtuous, Virtue itself enough, unadorned, to be at no pains to please; and then all persons, for the do not count, have some as to their position; they that they are in the of life on the whole, and they in after the fashion of those who think themselves unappreciated.
Hence the Baron, who himself of his family, all his of and his most for the of his wife, for his children, and his Cousin Lisbeth.
Then, when his son with Celestine, Crevel's daughter, who was nursing the Hulot, he was to his daughter-in-law, her with compliments—a to which Celestine's was little for no more or more was seen. The took the from her, it, it was a and a darling; he spoke to it in language, that it would to be than himself, for his son's benefit, and the child to the Normandy nurse who had of it. Celestine, on her part, gave the Baroness a look, as much as to say, "What a man!" and she naturally took her father-in-law's part against her father.
After thus playing the father-in-law and the grandpapa, the Baron took his son into the garden, and him a of full of good as to the to be taken up by the Chamber on a question which had that come under discussion. The lawyer was with for the of his father's insight, touched by his cordiality, and by the which to place the two men on a of equality.
Monsieur Hulot junior was in every respect the Frenchman, as he has been by the Revolution of 1830; his mind with politics, of his own hopes, and them under an of gravity, very of successful men, making do the of rejoinders—the of the French language—with a high of importance, and for dignity.
Such men are walking coffins, each a Frenchman of the past; now and again the Frenchman up and kicks against his English-made casing; but him, and he submits to be smothered. The is always with black cloth.
"Ah, here is my brother!" said Baron Hulot, going to meet the Count at the drawing-room door.
Having the of the late Marshal Montcornet, he him by the arm with every of and respect.
The older man, a of the Chamber of Peers, but from on account of his deafness, had a head, by age, but with still to be marked in a circle by the pressure of his hat. He was short, square, and shrunken, but his old age with a free-and-easy air; and as he was full of activity, which had now no purpose, he his time reading and taking exercise. In a drawing-room he his attention to waiting on the of the ladies.
"You are very here," said he, that the Baron a of on the little family gathering. "And yet Hortense is not married," he added, noticing a of on his sister-in-law's countenance.
"That will come all in good time," Lisbeth in his ear in a voice.
"So there you are, you that blossom," said he, laughing.
The hero of Forzheim liked Cousin Betty, for there were points of them. A man of the ranks, without any education, his had been the of his promotion, and had taken the place of brilliancy. Of the and clean-handed, he was a life in full in the centre of his family, which all his affections, and without a of his brother's still misconduct. No one more than he the of this family party, where there was the smallest disagreement, for the and sisters were all attached, Celestine having been at once as one of the family. But the little Count now and then why Monsieur Crevel joined the party. "Papa is in the country," Celestine shouted, and it was to him that the ex-perfumer was away from home.
This perfect of all her family Madame Hulot say to herself, "This, after all, is the best of happiness, and who can us of it?"
The General, on his Adeline the object of her husband's attentions, laughed so much about it that the Baron, to ridiculous, transferred his to his daughter-in-law, who at these family dinners was always the object of his and care, for he to win Crevel through her, and make him his resentment.
Any one this would have it hard to that the father was at his wits' end, the mother in despair, the son as to his father's fate, and the on the point of her of her lover.
