“Nonsense! you inflexible man! you frowning Alcestes,” said the Marquis Abbe, smiling slyly.  “Your profits and your scruples will go together, believe me, by listening to me.  In short, we shall manage to make it a blank communion for you; for after all, what is it that we ask?—­only the appearance!”

Now, a blank communion means breaking an unconsecrated wafer!

The Abbe-Marquis retired with his offers, which were rejected with indignation;—­but then, the refractory man was dismissed from his place at court.  This was but a single isolated fact.  Woe to all who found themselves opposed to the interest and principles of Madame de Saint Dizier or her friends!  Sooner or later, directly or indirectly, they felt themselves cruelly stabbed, generally immediately—­some in their dearest connections, others in their credit, some in their honor; others in their official functions; and all by secret action, noiseless, continuous, and latent, in time becoming a terrible and mysterious dissolvent, which invisibly undermined reputations, fortunes, positions the most solidly established, until the moment when all sunk forever into the abyss, amid the surprise and terror of the beholders.

It will now be conceived how under the Restoration the Princess de Saint Dizier had become singularly influential and formidable.  At the time of the Revolution of July (1830) she had “rallied,” and, strangely enough, by preserving some relation of family and of society with persons faithful to the worship of decayed monarchy, people still attributed to the princess much influence and power.  Let us mention, at last, that the Prince of Saint-Dizier, having died many years since, his very large personal fortune had descended to his younger brother, the father of Adrienne de Cardoville; and he, having died eighteen months ago, that young lady found herself to be the last and only representative of that branch of the family of the Renneponts.

The Princess of Saint-Dizier awaited her niece in a very large room, rendered dismal by its gloomy green damask.  The chairs, etc., covered with similar stuff, were of carved ebony.  Paintings of scriptural and other religious subjects, and an ivory crucifix thrown up from a background of black velvet, contributed to give the apartment a lugubrious and austere aspect.

Madame de Saint-Dizier, seated before a large desk, has just finished putting the seals on numerous letters; for she had a very extensive and very diversified correspondence.  Though then aged about forty-five she was still fair.  Advancing years had somewhat thickened her shape, which formerly of distinguished elegance, was still sufficiently handsome to be seen to advantage under the straight folds of her black dress.  Her headdress, very simple, decorated with gray ribbons, allowed her fair sleek hair to be seen arranged in broad bands.  At first look, people were struck with her dignified though unassuming