Touches, the Comtesse de Montcornet, or the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu,
the only aristocratic houses then open; and never did she leave any
one of them without some evil seed of the world being sown in her
heart. She heard talk of completing her life,--a saying much in
fashion in those days; of being comprehended,--another word to which
women gave strange meanings. She often returned home uneasy, excited,
curious, and thoughtful. She began to find something less, she hardly
knew what, in her life; but she did not yet go so far as to think it
lonely.



CHAPTER IV

A CELEBRATED MAN

The most amusing society, but also the most mixed, which Madame Felix
de Vandenesse frequented, was that of the Comtesse de Montcornet, a
charming little woman, who received illustrious artists, leading
financial personages, distinguished writers; but only after subjecting
them to so rigid an examination that the most exclusive aristocrat had
nothing to fear in coming in contact with this second-class society.
The loftiest pretensions were there respected.

During the winter of 1833, when society rallied after the revolution
of July, some salons, notably those of Mesdames d'Espard and de
Listomere, Mademoiselle des Touches, and the Duchesse de Grandlieu,
had selected certain of the celebrities in art, science, literature,
and politics, and received them. Society can lose nothing of its
rights, and it must be amused. At a concert given by Madame de