“But what I want is a practical conclusion,” said Madame de l’Estorade, tapping her foot.

“My practical conclusion,—­here it is,” replied Madame Octave.  “If you will not persist in the folly of swimming against the current, I see no danger whatever in your being submerged.  You are strong; you have principles and religion; you adore your children; you love Monsieur de l’Estorade, their father, in them.  With all that ballast you cannot sink.”

“Well?” said Madame de l’Estorade, interrogatively.

“Well, there is no need to have recourse to violent measures, the success of which is very problematical.  Remain as you are; build no barricades when no one attacks you.  Don’t excite tempests of heart and conscience merely to pacify your conscience and quiet your heart, now ruffled only by a tiny breeze.  No doubt between a man and a woman the sentiment of friendship does take something of the character ordinarily given to love; but such friendship is neither an impossible illusion nor is it a yawning gulf.”

“Then,” said Madame de l’Estorade, with a thoughtful air, “do you wish me to make a friend of Monsieur de Sallenauve?”

“Yes, dear, in order not to make him a fixed idea, a regret, a struggle,—­three things which poison life.”

“But my husband, who has already had a touch of jealousy?”

“As for your husband, I find him somewhat changed, and not for the better.  I miss that deference he always showed to you personally, to your ideas and impressions,—­a deference which honored him more than he thought, because there is true greatness in the power to admire.  I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that public life is spoiling him a little.  As you cannot be with him in the Chamber of peers, he is beginning to suspect that he can have a life without you.  If I were you, I should watch these symptoms of independence, and not let the work of your lifetime come to nought.”

“Do you know, my dear,” said Madame de l’Estorade, laughing, “that you are giving me advice that may end in fire and slaughter?”

“Not at all.  I am a woman forty-five years of age, who has always seen things on their practical side.  I did not marry my husband, whom I loved, until I had convinced myself, by putting him to the test, that he was worthy of my esteem.  I don’t make life; I take it as it comes, —­trying to put order and possibility into all the occurrences it brings to me.  I an neither the frenzied passion of Louise de Chaulieu, nor the insensible reason of Renee de Maucombe.  I am a Jesuit in petticoats, persuaded that rather wide sleeves are better than sleeves that are tight to the wrist; and I have never gone in search of the philosopher’s stone—­”

At this instant Lucas opened the door of the salon and announced,—­

“Monsieur le Comte de Sallenauve.”

His mistress gave him a look inquiring why he had disobeyed her orders, to which Lucas replied by a sign implying that he did not suppose the prohibition applied in this instance.