Old Mme Muffat then, whom La Faloise had been well acquainted with, was an insufferable old lady, always hand in glove with the priests.

She had the grand manner, besides, and an authoritative way of comporting herself, which bent everybody to her will.

As to Muffat, he was an old man's child; his father, a general, had been created count by Napoleon I, and naturally he had found himself in favor after the second of December.

He hadn't much gaiety of manner either, but he passed for a very honest man of straightforward intentions and understanding.

Add to these a code of old aristocratic ideas and such a lofty conception of his duties at court, of his dignities and of his virtues, that he behaved like a god on wheels.