"He is something of a charlatan,"replied Felix;"one of those volcanoes who are easily calmed down with a little gold-dust.Madame de Montcornet makes a mistake in admitting him."This answer annoyed Marie,all the more because Felix supported his opinion with certain facts,relating what he knew of Raoul Nathan's life,--a precarious existence mixed up with a popular actress.
"If the man has genius,"he said in conclusion,"he certainly has neither the constancy nor the patience which sanctifies it,and makes it a thing divine.He endeavors to impose on the world by placing himself on a level which he does nothing to maintain.True talent,pains-taking and honorable talent does not act thus.Men who possess such talent follow their path courageously;they accept its pains and penalties,and don't cover them with tinsel."A woman's thought is endowed with incredible elasticity.When she receives a knockdown blow,she bends,seems crushed,and then renews her natural shape in a given time.
"Felix is no doubt right,"thought she.
But three days later she was once more thinking of the serpent,recalled to him by that singular emotion,painful and yet sweet,which the first sight of Raoul had given her.The count and countess went to Lady Dudley's grand ball,where,by the bye,de Marsay appeared in society for the last time.He died about two months later,leaving the reputation of a great statesman,because,as Blondet remarked,he was incomprehensible.
Vandenesse and his wife again met Raoul Nathan at this ball,which was remarkable for the meeting of several personages of the political drama,who were not a little astonished to find themselves together.
It was one of the first solemnities of the great world.The salons presented a magnificent spectacle to the eye,--flowers,diamonds,and brilliant head-dresses;all jewel-boxes emptied;all resources of the toilet put under contribution.The ball-room might be compared to one of those choice conservatories where rich horticulturists collect the most superb rarities,--same brilliancy,same delicacy of texture.On all sides white or tinted gauzes like the wings of the airiest dragon-fly,crepes,laces,blondes,and tulles,varied as the fantasies of entomological nature;dentelled,waved,and scalloped;spider's webs of gold and silver;mists of silk embroidered by fairy fingers;plumes colored by the fire of the tropics drooping from haughty heads;pearls twined in braided hair;shot or ribbed or brocaded silks,as though the genius of arabesque had presided over French manufactures,--all this luxury was in harmony with the beauties collected there as if to realize a "Keepsake."The eye received there an impression of the whitest shoulders,some amber-tinted,others so polished as to seem colandered,some dewy,some plump and satiny,as though Rubens had prepared their flesh;in short,all shades known to man in white.Here were eyes sparkling like onyx or turquoise fringed with dark lashes;faces of varied outline presenting the most graceful types of many lands;foreheads noble and majestic,or softly rounded,as if thought ruled,or flat,as if resistant will reigned there unconquered;beautiful bosoms swelling,as George IV.admired them,or widely parted after the fashion of the eighteenth century,or pressed together,as Louis XV.required;some shown boldly,without veils,others covered by those charming pleated chemisettes which Raffaelle painted.The prettiest feet pointed for the dance,the slimmest waists encircled in the waltz,stimulated the gaze of the most indifferent person present.The murmur of sweet voices,the rustle of gowns,the cadence of the dance,the whir of the waltz harmoniously accompanied the music.A fairy's wand seemed to have commanded this dazzling revelry,this melody of perfumes,these iridescent lights glittering from crystal chandeliers or sparkling in candelabra.This assemblage of the prettiest women in their prettiest dresses stood out upon a gloomy background of men in black coats,among whom the eye remarked the elegant,delicate,and correctly drawn profile of nobles,the ruddy beards and grave faces of Englishmen,and the more gracious faces of the French aristocracy.All the orders of Europe glittered on the breasts or hung from the necks of these men.