And in the vast and solemn room their laughter sounded a note which struck Fauchery strangely, the note of delicate glass breaking.

Assuredly here was the first beginning of the "little rift." Everyone began talking again.

Mme du Joncquoy demurred; Mme Chantereau knew for certain that a marriage had been projected but that matters had gone no further; the men even ventured to give their opinions.

For some minutes the conversation was a babel of opinions, in which the divers elements of the circle, whether Bonapartist or Legitimist or merely worldly and skeptical, appeared to jostle one another simultaneously.

Estelle had rung to order wood to be put on the fire; the footman turned up the lamps; the room seemed to wake from sleep.