The
Comte de Fontaine was obliged to use his influence to procure an
appointment to Russia for Auguste Longueville in order to protect his
daughter from the ridicule heaped upon her by this dangerous young
persecutor.
Not long after, the Ministry being compelled to raise a levy of peers
to support the aristocratic party, trembling in the Upper Chamber
under the lash of an illustrious writer, gave Monsieur Guiraudin de
Longueville a peerage, with the title of Vicomte. Monsieur de Fontaine
also obtained a peerage, the reward due as much to his fidelity in
evil days as to his name, which claimed a place in the hereditary
Chamber.
About this time Emilie, now of age, made, no doubt, some serious
reflections on life, for her tone and manners changed perceptibly.
Instead of amusing herself by saying spiteful things to her uncle, she
lavished on him the most affectionate attentions; she brought him his
stick with a persevering devotion that made the cynical smile, she
gave him her arm, rode in his carriage, and accompanied him in all his
drives; she even persuaded him that she liked the smell of tobacco,
and read him his favorite paper La Quotidienne in the midst of clouds
of smoke, which the malicious old sailor intentionally blew over her;
she learned piquet to be a match for the old count; and this fantastic
damsel even listened without impatience to his periodical narratives
of the battles of the Belle-Poule, the manoeuvres of the Ville de
Paris, M.
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