He was
often heard to say that he had rescued his niece as a castaway after
shipwreck; and that, for his part, he had never taken a mean advantage
of hospitality when he had saved an enemy from the fury of the storm.
Though the Countess aspired to reign in Paris and tried to keep pace
with Mesdames the Duchesses de Maufrigneuse and du Chaulieu, the
Marquises d'Espard and d'Aiglemont, the Comtesses Feraud, de
Montcornet, and de Restaud, Madame de Camps, and Mademoiselle des
Touches, she did not yield to the addresses of the young Vicomte de
Portenduere, who made her his idol.
Two years after her marriage, in one of the old drawing-rooms in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain, where she was admired for her character,
worthy of the old school, Emilie heard the Vicomte de Longueville
announced. In the corner of the room where she was sitting, playing
piquet with the Bishop of Persepolis, her agitation was not observed;
she turned her head and saw her former lover come in, in all the
freshness of youth. His father's death, and then that of his brother,
killed by the severe climate of Saint-Petersburg, had placed on
Maximilien's head the hereditary plumes of the French peer's hat. His
fortune matched his learning and his merits; only the day before his
youthful and fervid eloquence had dazzled the Assembly. At this moment
he stood before the Countess, free, and graced with all the advantages
she had formerly required of her ideal.
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