“You have too much mind, Rose; you don’t need so much to be happy.”

That remark brought a smile of satisfaction to the lips of the poor woman, and confirmed her in the good opinion she was beginning to acquire about herself.  That is how the world, our friends, and our enemies are the accomplices of our defects!

At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the successive arrival of the guests.  On these ceremonial days, friendly familiarities were exchanged between the servants of the house and the company.  Mariette remarked to the chief-justice as he passed the kitchen:—­

“Ah, Monsieur du Ronceret, I’ve cooked the cauliflowers au gratin expressly for you, for mademoiselle knows how you like them; and she said to me:  ’Now don’t forget, Mariette, for Monsieur du Ronceret is coming.’”

“That good Mademoiselle Cormon!” ejaculated the chief legal authority of the town.  “Mariette, did you steep them in gravy instead of soup-stock? it is much richer.”

The chief-justice was not above entering the chamber of council where Mariette held court; he cast the eye of a gastronome around it, and offered the advice of a past master in cookery.

“Good-day, madame,” said Josette to Madame Granson, who courted the maid.  “Mademoiselle has thought of you, and there’s fish for dinner.”

As for the Chevalier de Valois, he remarked to Mariette, in the easy tone of a great seigneur who condescends to be familiar:—­

“Well, my dear cordon-bleu, to whom I should give the cross of the Legion of honor, is there some little dainty for which I had better reserve myself?”

“Yes, yes, Monsieur de Valois,—­a hare sent from Prebaudet; weighs fourteen pounds.”

Du Bousquier was not invited.  Mademoiselle Cormon, faithful to the system which we know of, treated that fifty-year-old suitor extremely ill, although she felt inexplicable sentiments towards him in the depths of her heart.  She had refused him; yet at times she repented; and a presentiment that she should yet marry him, together with a terror at the idea which prevented her from wishing for the marriage, assailed her.  Her mind, stimulated by these feelings, was much occupied by du Bousquier.  Without being aware of it, she was influenced by the herculean form of the republican.  Madame Granson and the Chevalier de Valois, although they could not explain to themselves Mademoiselle Cormon’s inconsistencies, had detected her naive glances in that direction, the meaning of which seemed clear enough to make them both resolve to ruin the hopes of the already rejected purveyor, —­hopes which it was evident he still indulged.

Two guests, whose functions excused them, kept the dinner waiting.  One was Monsieur du Coudrai, the recorder of mortgages; the other Monsieur Choisnel, former bailiff to the house of Esgrignon, and now the notary of the upper aristocracy, by whom he was received with a distinction due to his virtues; he was also a man of considerable wealth.  When the two belated guests arrived, Jacquelin said to them as he saw them about to enter the salon:—­