At this moment Madame de Lormoy turned towards him:—
"Well, prince, how do you find yourself?"
"I thank you, madame!" replied the prince in French, and without any foreign accent, but in a low, faint voice, "I feel very well."
"Perhaps the light hurts you a little, dear?" said the princess to her husband.
"Rather, but I must get accustomed to it,—I am about to become such a gay fellow!" he added, with a smile.
"Well, then, prince," continued Madame de Lormoy, "there is nothing like stirring about as a remedy for nervous complaints. I only advise you to try the most agreeable recreation, and Madame de Hansfeld is with you."
"It is she, on the contrary, who requires recreation," said the prince, kindly; "but I have much trouble in inducing her to go into society now and then."
"Alas! prince, my nephew, De Morville, is just the same, and I am always scolding him; my poor sister, his mother, has been an invalid so long, and he has nursed her so affectionately, that he really quite keeps away from the world. Dieu merci! She is getting better now, but my nephew still insists on his absurd retirement. He has become whimsical and capricious, and I have been obliged to make his excuses to you, my dear princess, for, after having asked me the favour of being presented to you, his savage taste has resumed its ascendancy, and he has made the excuse of his retirement from the world to renounce a favour at first so eagerly requested."
Madame de Hansfeld remained quite unmoved by this allusion to De Morville, whom she had for some time seen in the orchestra stalls, and replied with a smile,—
"I have heard this singularity of M. de Morville accounted for in a very romantic manner—allusions to an affair of the heart very deeply seated—a fidelity which does not belong to our times."