“Oh! there are days when one looks better than on others; everybody is like that; to-day certainly seems to be one of my good days.

“It would seem then that madame was married very young?”

“Yes, very young; I was seventeen years old, not more.”

“What a sweet little bride madame must have been!”

“Yes, everybody admired me!”

“And madame’s husband, the Baron de Grangeville, was he young? Was he a fine-looking man?”

“Why yes, my husband was a fine man, very good-looking, with a somewhat serious expression.—Would you believe, my dear child, that I was mad over that man?”

“Pray, madame, why not? There are wives who adore their husbands; it isn’t very common, but such things are seen.”

“Yes, I adored him—the first year after our marriage.”

“Ah! only the first year?”