After the dancing began, Nais was unable to accept all the invitations which the elegant young lions vied with one another in pressing upon her; in fact, she grew sadly confused as to the number and order of her engagements,--a circumstance which very nearly led, in spite of the entente cordiale, to an open rupture between France and perfidious Albion.A quadrille doubly promised, to a young English peer aged ten and a pupil in the Naval School of about the same years, came very near producing unpleasant complications, inasmuch as the young British scion of nobility had assumed a boxing attitude.That fray pacified, another annoying episode occurred.A small boy, seeing a servant with a tray of refreshments and being unable to reach up to the objects of his greed, had the deplorable idea of putting his hand on the edge of the tray and bending it down to him.Result: a cascade of mingled orgeat, negus, and syrups; and happy would it have been had the young author of this mischief been the only sufferer from the sugary torrent; but, alas! nearly a dozen innocent victims were splashed and spattered by the disastrous accident,--among them four or five bacchantes, who were furious at seeing their toilets injured, and would fain have made an Orpheus of the clumsy infant.While he was being rescued with great difficulty from their clutches by the German governess, a voice was heard amid the hubbub,--that of a pretty little blonde, saying to a small Scottish youth with whom she had danced the whole evening,--"How odd of Nais to invite little boys of that age!""That's easily explained," said the Scottish youth; "he's a boy of the Treasury department.Nais had to ask him on account of her parents,--a matter of policy, you know."Then, taking the arm of one of his friends, the same youth continued:--"Hey, Ernest," he said, "I'd like a cigar; suppose we find a quiet corner, out of the way of all this racket?""I can't, my dear fellow," replied Ernest, in a whisper; "you know Leontine always makes me a scene when she smells I've been smoking, and she is charming to me to-night.See, look at what she has given me!""A horse-hair ring!" exclaimed the Scot, disdainfully, "with two locked hearts; all the boys at school have them.""What have you to show that's better?" replied Ernest, in a piqued tone.
"Oh!" said the Scot, with a superior air, "something much better."And drawing from the pouch which formed an integral part of his costume a note on violet paper highly perfumed,--"There," he said, putting it under Ernest's nose, "smell that!"Indelicate friend that he was, Ernest pounced upon the note and took possession of it.The Scottish youth, furious, flung himself upon the treacherous French boy; on which Monsieur de l'Estorade, a thousand leagues from imagining the subject of the quarrel, intervened and parted the combatants, which enabled the ravisher to escape into a corner of the salon to enjoy his booty.The note contained no writing.
The young scamp had probably taken the paper out of his mother's blotting-book.A moment after, returning to his adversary and giving him the note, he said in a jeering tone,--"There's your note; it is awfully compromising.""Keep it, monsieur," replied the Scot."I shall ask for it to-morrow in the Tuileries, under the horse-chestnuts; meantime, you will please understand that all intercourse is at an end between us."Ernest was less knightly; he contented himself with putting the thumb of his right hand to his nose and spreading the fingers,--an ironical gesture he had acquired from his mother's coachman; after which he ran to find his partner for the next quadrille.
But what details are these on which we are wasting time, when we know that interests of the highest order are moving, subterraneously, beneath the surface of the children's ball.
Arriving from Ville d'Avray late in the afternoon, Sallenauve had brought Madame de l'Estorade ill news of Marie-Gaston.Under an appearance of resignation, he was gloomy, and, singular to say, he had not visited the grave of his wife,--as if he feared an emotion he might not have the power to master.It seemed to Sallenauve that his friend had come to the end of his strength, and that a mental prostration of the worst character was succeeding the over-excitement he had shown at his election.One thing reassured the new deputy, and enabled him to come to Paris for, at any rate, a few hours.A friend of Marie-Gaston, an English nobleman with whom he had been intimate in Florence, came out to see him, and the sad man greeted the new-comer with apparent joy.
In order to distract Sallenauve's thoughts from this anxiety, Madame de l'Estorade introduced him to Monsieur Octave de Camps, the latter having expressed a great desire to know him.The deputy had not talked ten minutes with the iron-master before he reached his heart by the magnitude of the metallurgical knowledge his conversation indicated.