“All that is necessary.”

“Very well, then, Madame la duchesse.  As the price of my efforts you must do me the honor to receive in your house and seriously protect Madame la Comtesse de Trailles.”

“What! are you married?” cried d’Ajuda.

“I shall be married within a fortnight to the heiress of a rich but extremely bourgeois family,—­a sacrifice to opinion!  I imbibe the very spirit of my government, and start upon a new career.  Consequently, Madame la duchesse will understand how important it is to me to have my wife adopted by her and by her family.  I am certain of being made deputy by the resignation of my father-in-law, and I am promised a diplomatic post in keeping with my new fortune.  I do not see why my wife should not be as well received as Madame de Portenduere in that society of young women which includes Mesdames de la Bastie, Georges de Maufrigneuse, de L’Estorade, du Guenic, d’Ajuda, de Restaud, de Rastignac, de Vandenesse.  My wife is pretty, and I will undertake to un-cotton-night-cap her.  Will this suit you, Madame la duchesse?  You are religious, and if you say yes, your promise, which I know to be sacred, will greatly aid in my change of life.  It will be one more good action to your account.  Alas!  I have long been the king of mauvais sujets, and I want to make an end of it.  After all, we bear, azure, a wivern or, darting fire, ongle gules, and scaled vert, a chief ermine, from the time of Francois I., who thought proper to ennoble the valet of Louis XI., and we have been counts since Catherine de’ Medici.”

“I will receive and protect your wife,” said the duchess, solemnly, “and my family will not turn its back upon her; I give you my word.”

“Ah!  Madame la duchesse,” cried Maxime, visibly touched, “if Monsieur le duc would also deign to treat me with some kindness, I promise you to make your plan succeed without its costing you very much.  But,” he continued after a pause, “you must take upon yourself to follow my instructions.  This is the last intrigue of my bachelor life; it must be all the better managed because it concerns a good action,” he added, smiling.

“Follow your instructions!” said the duchess.  “Then I must appear in all this.”

“Ah! madame, I will not compromise you,” cried Maxime.  “I esteem you too much to demand guarantees.  I merely mean that you must follow my advice.  For example, it will be necessary that du Guenic be taken away by his wife for at least two years; she must show him Switzerland, Italy, Germany,—­in short, all possible countries.”

“Ah! you confirm a fear of my director,” said the duchess, naively, remembering the judicious objection of the Abbe Brossette.

Maxime and d’Ajuda could not refrain from smiling at the idea of this agreement between heaven and hell.

“To prevent Madame de Rochefide from ever seeing Calyste again,” she continued, “we will all travel, Juste and his wife, Calyste, Sabine, and I. I will leave Clotilde with her father—­”