his arm and his bouquets.  We were talked about.  I was delighted, and managed before long to be surprised by my husband, with the viscount on the sofa in my boudoir, holding my hands in his, while I listened in a sort of external ecstasy.  It is incredible how much a desire for vengeance will induce us to put up with!  I appeared vexed at the entrance of my husband, who made a scene on the viscount’s departure:  ’I assure you, sir,’ said I, after having listened to his reproaches, ’that it’s altogether moral.’  My husband saw the point and went no more to Madame de Fischtaminel’s.  I received Monsieur de Lustrac no more, either.”

“But,” I interrupted, “this Lustrac that you, like many others, take for a bachelor, is a widower, and childless.”

“Really!”

“No man ever buried his wife deeper than he buried his:  she will hardly be found at the day of judgment.  He married before the Revolution, and your altogether moral reminds me of a speech of his that I shall have to repeat for your benefit.  Napoleon appointed Lustrac to an important office, in a conquered province.  Madame de Lustrac, abandoned for governmental duties, took a private secretary for her private affairs, though it was altogether moral:  but she was wrong in selecting him without informing her husband.  Lustrac met this secretary in a state of some excitement, in consequence of a lively discussion in his wife’s chamber, and at an exceedingly early hour in the morning.  The city desired nothing better than to laugh at its governor, and this adventure made such a sensation that Lustrac himself begged the Emperor to recall him.  Napoleon desired his representatives to be men of morality, and he held that such disasters as this must inevitably take from a man’s consideration.  You know that among the Emperor’s unhappy passions, was that of reforming his court and his government.  Lustrac’s request was granted, therefore, but without compensation.  When he returned to Paris, he reappeared at his mansion, with his wife; he took her into society—­a step which is certainly conformable to the most refined habits of the aristocracy —­but then there are always people who want to find out about it.  They inquired the reason of this chivalrous championship.  ’So you are reconciled, you and Madame de Lustrac,’ some one said to him in the lobby of the Emperor’s theatre, ’you have pardoned her, have you?  So much the better.’  ‘Oh,’ replied he, with a satisfied air, ’I became convinced—­’ ‘Ah, that she was innocent, very good.’  ’No, I became convinced that it was altogether physical.’”

Caroline smiled.

“The opinion of your admirer reduced this weighty trouble to what is, in this case as in yours, a very petty one.”

“A petty trouble!” she exclaimed, “and pray for what do you take the fatigue of coquetting with a de Lustrac, of whom I have made an enemy!  Ah, women often pay dearly enough for the bouquets they receive and the attentions they accept.  Monsieur de Lustrac said of me to Monsieur de Bourgarel, ’I would not advise you to pay court to that woman; she is too dear.’”