King, and each neighbor had some favor to ask for himself, for his
relatives, or for his friends.

Poor king! He should have had entire France to divide like a cake
between these cormorants, whose voracious appetites it was impossible to
satisfy.

That evening, after a grand banquet at the Chateau de Courtornieu,
the duke slept in the Chateau de Sairmeuse, in the room which had been
occupied by Lacheneur, "like Louis XVIII.," he laughingly said, "in the
chamber of Bonaparte."

He was gay, chatty, and full of confidence in the future.

"Ah! it is good to be in one's own house!" he remarked to his son again
and again.

But Martial responded only mechanically. His mind was occupied with
thoughts of two women who had made a profound impression upon his by
no means susceptible heart that day. He was thinking of those two young
girls, so utterly unlike. Blanche de Courtornieu--Marie-Anne Lacheneur.



CHAPTER VIII

Only those who, in the bright springtime of life, have loved, have been
loved in return, and have suddenly seen an impassable gulf open between
them and happiness, can realize Maurice d'Escorval's disappointment.