possible that a man could make you suffer? Be assured that where, as
you say, other women are common and vulgar, you can only seem
distinguished; your manner of saying things would make a cook-book
interesting."

"You go fast in friendship," she said, in a grave voice which made
d'Arthez extremely uneasy.

The conversation changed; the hour was late, and the poor man of
genius went away contrite for having seemed curious, and for wounding
the sensitive heart of that rare woman who had so strangely suffered.
As for her, she had passed her life in amusing herself with men, and
was another Don Juan in female attire, with this difference: she would
certainly not have invited the Commander to supper, and would have got
the better of any statue.

It is impossible to continue this tale without saying a word about the
Prince de Cadignan, better known under the name of the Duc de
Maufrigneuse, otherwise the spice of the princess's confidences would
be lost, and strangers would not understand the Parisian comedy she
was about to play for her man of genius.

The Duc de Maufrigneuse, like a true son of the old Prince de
Cadignan, is a tall, lean man, of elegant shape, very graceful, a
sayer of witty things, colonel by the grace of God, and a good soldier
by accident; brave as a Pole, which means without sense or
discernment, and hiding the emptiness of his mind under the jargon of
good society. After the age of thirty-six he was forced to be as
absolutely indifferent to the fair sex as his master Charles X.,
punished, like that master, for having pleased it too well. For