CHAPTER XX.
What deep wounds ever closed without a scar The heart's bleed longest, and but heal to wear That which disfigures it; and they who war With their own hopes, and have been vanquish'd, bear Silence, but not submission.
LORD BYRON.
Madame de la Tour at length proceeded:--"I have already told you, Lucie, that De Courcy viewed, with uneasiness, the homage which was paid your mother, though it did not exceed the usual devotion which Parisian gallantry is wont to offer at the shrine of female loveliness.

He must have expected it; for no one could have been more conscious of her beauty, or more proud of possessing it.

But he persuaded himself, that this adulation was too grateful to her; his affection was selfish and engrossing, and he wished her to receive pleasure from no praises or attentions but his own.

She was, perhaps, as free from vanity as any woman could be, young, beautiful, and admired as herself; and if not indifferent to the admiration which her charms excited, it was but the natural and transient delight of a gay and innocent mind; her heart was ever loyal to her husband, and his society, his fond and approving smile, were far more prized by her, than the idle homage of a world.
"The young Count de -- -- was an object of particular dislike and unceasing suspicion to De Courcy.

They were distantly related; but some slight disagreement, which had taken place at an earlier period, created a coolness between them, which was never overcome.