The shocked lady looked uncomfortable.
“What then? since it was the Emperor’s brother.”
“Exactly; the brother of the Emperor, and both of them the sons of a mother beside whom beautiful Kora is a thing of chastity.”
“The children could not help the fact that they were all half-brothers,” laughed the Countess Helene.
“But this so-called Duke could help parading the doubtful honor of his descent; yet who fails to return his bow? And I have yet to learn that his mother was ignored by the ladies of her day. Those Hortensias on his carriage are horrible to me; they are an attempt to exalt in a queen the immorality condemned in a subject.”
“Ah! You make my head swim with your theories,” confessed the Countess. “How do you find time to study them all?”
“They require no study; one meets them daily in the street or court. The difficulty is to cease thinking of them––to enjoy a careless life when justice is always calling somewhere for help.”
“I refuse to be annoyed by the calls, yet am comfortable,” said Madame Choudey. “The people who imagine they hear justice calling have had, too often, to follow the calls into exile.”
“That is true,” agreed her friend; “take care Marquise! Your theories are very interesting, but, truly, you are a revolutionist.”