Fauchery, having again fallen under Rose's dominion, the countess was running madly after other loves.

She was entering on the forties, that restless, feverish time in the life of women, and ever hysterically nervous, she now filled her mansion with the maddening whirl of her fashionable life.

Estelle, since her marriage, had seen nothing of her father; the undeveloped, insignificant girl had suddenly become a woman of iron will, so imperious withal that Daguenet trembled in her presence.

In these days he accompanied her to mass: he was converted, and he raged against his father-in-law for ruining them with a courtesan.

M.Venot alone still remained kindly inclined toward the count, for he was biding his time.