She made good her words and took flight.  Victurnien went soon afterwards, but not before others had guessed his ecstatic condition; his face wore the expression peculiar to happy men, something between an Inquisitor’s calm discretion and the self-contained beatitude of a devotee, fresh from the confessional and absolution.

“Mme. de Maufrigneuse went pretty briskly to the point this evening,” said the Duchesse de Grandlieu, when only half-a-dozen persons were left in Mlle. des Touches’ little drawing-room—­to wit, des Lupeaulx, a Master of Requests, who at that time stood very well at court, Vandenesse, the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, Canalis, and Mme. de Serizy.

“D’Esgrignon and Maufrigneuse are two names that are sure to cling together,” said Mme. de Serizy, who aspired to epigram.

“For some days past she has been out at grass on Platonism,” said des Lupeaulx.

“She will ruin that poor innocent,” added Charles de Vandenesse.

“What do you mean?” asked Mlle. des Touches.

“Oh, morally and financially, beyond all doubt,” said the Vicomtesse, rising.

The cruel words were cruelly true for young d’Esgrignon.

Next morning he wrote to his aunt describing his introduction into the high world of the Faubourg Saint-Germain in bright colors flung by the prism of love, explaining the reception which met him everywhere in a way which gratified his father’s family pride.  The Marquis would have the whole long letter read to him twice; he rubbed his hands when he heard of the Vidame de Pamiers’ dinner—­the Vidame was an old acquaintance—­and of the subsequent introduction to the Duchess; but at Blondet’s name he lost himself in conjectures.  What could the younger son of a judge, a public prosecutor during the Revolution, have been doing there?

There was joy that evening among the Collection of Antiquities.  They talked over the young Count’s success.  So discreet were they with regard to Mme. de Maufrigneuse, that the one man who heard the secret was the Chevalier.  There was no financial postscript at the end of the letter, no unpleasant reference to the sinews of war, which every young man makes in such a case.  Mlle. Armande showed it to Chesnel.  Chesnel was pleased and raised not a single objection.  It was clear, as the Marquis and the Chevalier agreed, that a young man in favor with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse would shortly be a hero at court, where in the old days women were all-powerful.  The Count had not made a bad choice.  The dowagers told over all the gallant adventures of the Maufrigneuses from Louis XIII. to Louis XVI.—­they spared to inquire into preceding reigns—­and when all was done they were enchanted.  —­Mme. de Maufrigneuse was much praised for interesting herself in Victurnien.  Any writer of plays in search of a piece of pure comedy would have found it well worth his while to listen to the Antiquities in conclave.