regard to partial exceptions, the French _gentilhomme_ is essentially a
Parisian; a Parisian is essentially impressionable to the impulse or
fashion of the moment. Is it _a la mode_ for the moment to be Liberal or
anti-Liberal? Parisians embrace and kiss each other, and swear through
life and death to adhere forever to the mode of the moment. The Three
Days were the mode of the moment,--the Count de Passy became an
enthusiastic Orleanist. Louis Philippe was very gracious to him. He was
decorated; he was named _prefet_ of his department; he was created
senator; he was about to be sent Minister to a German Court when Louis
Philippe fell. The Republic was proclaimed. The Count caught the
popular contagion, and after exchanging tears and kisses with patriots
whom a week before he had called _canaille_, he swore eternal fidelity to
the Republic. The fashion of the moment suddenly became Napoleonic, and
with the _coup d'etat_ the Republic was metamorphosed into an Empire.
The Count wept on the bosoms of all the _Vieilles Moustaches_ he could
find, and rejoiced that the sun of Austerlitz had re-arisen. But after
the affair of Mexico the sun of Austerlitz waxed very sickly.
Imperialism was fast going out of fashion. The Count transferred his
affection to Jules Favre, and joined the ranks of the advanced Liberals.
During all these political changes, the Count had remained very much the
same man in private life; agreeable, good-natured, witty, and, above all,
a devotee of the fair sex. When he had reached the age of sixty-eight he
was still _fort bel homme_, unmarried, with a grand presence and charming
manner. At that age he said, "Je me range," and married a young lady of
eighteen. She adored her husband, and was wildly jealous of him; while
the Count did not seem at all jealous of her, and submitted to her
adoration with a gentle shrug of the shoulders.

The three other guests who, with Graham and the two Italian ladies, made
up the complement of ten, were the German Count von Rudesheim, a