of their subjects who are in all ways great and worthy of notice, unbend to the Mime who today takes the place of the Court-jester, and allow him to enter the royal presence, often bringing his newest wanton with him.  And there was not the slightest reason for the Marquis Fontenelle to be at all particular in his choice of acquaintances.  Yet somehow or other, he was.  The fine and sensitive instincts of a gentleman were in him, and though in the very depths of his own conscience he knew himself to be as much of a social actor as Miraudin was a professional one,—­though he was aware that his passions were as sensual, and therefore as vulgar, (for sensuality is vulgarity), there was a latent pride in him which forbade him to set himself altogether on the same level.  And now as he walked away haughtily, his fine aristocratic head lifted a little higher in air than usual, he was excessively irritated—­with everything and everybody, but with himself in particular.  Abbe Vergniaud’s sermon had stung him in several ways, and the startling finale had vexed him still more.

“What folly!” he thought, as he entered his luxuriously appointed flat, and threw himself into a chair with a kind of angry weariness, “How utterly stupid of Vergniaud to blazon the fact that he is no better than other men, in the full face of his congregation!  He must be mad!  A priest of the Roman Church publicly acknowledging a natural son! [Footnote:  Rome, August 19, 1899—­A grave scandal has just burst upon the world here.  The Gazetta di Venezia having attacked the bishops attending the recent conclave of “Latin America,” that is, Spanish-speaking America, as men of loose morality, the Osservatore Cattolico, the Vatican organ, replied declaring that the life of the bishops present at the conclave was above suspicion.  The Gazetta di Venezia responds, affirming that the majority of the bishops brought with them to Rome their mistresses, and in some instances their children.  The Gazetta offers to disclose the names of these bishops, and demands that the Pope shall satisfy the Catholic world by taking measures against them.—­Central News.] Has ever such a thing been heard of!  And the result is merely to create scandal and invite his own disgrace!  A quoi bon!”

He lit a cigarette and puffed at it impatiently.  His particular “code” of morality had been completely upset;—­things seemed to have taken a turn for general offence, and the simplest thoughts became like bristles in his brain, pricking him uncomfortably in various sore and sensitive places.  Then, added to his general sense of spleen was the unpleasant idea that he was really in love, where he had never meant to be in love.  “In love”, is a wide term nowadays, and covers a multitude of poor and petty passing emotions,—­and it is often necessary to add the word “really” to it, in order to emphasise the fact that the passion has perhaps,—­and even then it is only a perhaps,—­taken a somewhat lasting form.