Mr. Carre-Lamadon, a man of considerable standing, a leader in the
cotton business, proprietor of three spinning mills, officer of
the Legion of Honor and member of the General Council. During the
Empire he had been the leader of the friendly opposition, solely
for the purpose of commanding a higher price for his support when
he rallied to the cause which he was fighting daily with courteous
weapons, according to his own expression. Mrs. Carre-Lamadon,
considerably younger than her husband, remained the consolation of
Officers belonging to good families who had been quartered in Rouen.

She was sitting opposite her husband, pretty, slender, graceful,
curled in her furs, and gazed mournfully at the lamentable interior
of the coach.

Her neighbors, Count and Countess Hubert de Breville, bore one of
the most ancient and noble names of Normandy. the Count, an old
nobleman of aristocratic bearing, endeavored to accentuate by the
artifices of his toilette his natural resemblance to King Henry
IV, who, according to a legend, in which the family gloried, had
caused the maternity of a de Breville lady whose husband, on account
of his royal connection, had been made a Count and Governor of a
Province.

A Colleague of Carre-Lamadon in the General Council, Count Hubert
represented the Orleanist party in his Department. The story of
his marriage with the daughter of a small ship-owner of Nantes had
always remained mysterious. But as the Countess had a grand air,
entertained better than any other hostess, and was credited with
having been the Dulcinea of one of Louis Philippe's sons, the
whole nobility showed her the greatest consideration, and her salon