"Our friend General de Bozonnet is on the other side, I see.

But isn't Baron Duvillard here ?" "Oh! no," replied Duthil; "he could hardly come; it would look as if he were here to ask for vengeance." Then, in his turn questioning Rosemonde, the deputy went on: "Do you happen to have quarrelled with your handsome friend Hyacinthe?
Is that the reason why you've given me the pleasure of acting as your escort to-day ?" With a slight shrug of her shoulders, the Princess replied that poets were beginning to bore her.

A fresh caprice, indeed, was drawing her into politics.

For a week past she had found amusement in the surroundings of the ministerial crisis, into which the young deputy for Angouleme had initiated her.

"They are all a little bit crazy at the Duvillards', my dear fellow," said she.