"And Madame la Vicomtesse will put him on a diet," added Nick, rousing
himself.
"Helene will take care of him," answered Monsieur de St. Gre.
He fell to musing again. "Madame la Vicomtesse has seen more in seven
years than most of us see in a lifetime," he said. "She has beheld the
glory of France, and the dishonor and pollution of her country. Had the
old order lasted her salon would have been famous, and she would have
been a power in politics."
"I have thought that the Vicomtesse must have had a queer marriage," Nick
remarked.
Monsieur de St. Gre smiled.
"Such marriages were the rule amongst our nobility," he said. "It was
arranged while Helene was still in the convent, though it was not
celebrated until three years after she had been in the world. There was
a romantic affair, I believe, with a young gentleman of the English
embassy, though I do not know the details. He is said to be the only man
she ever cared for. He was a younger son of an impoverished earl."
I started, remembering what the Vicomtesse had said. But Monsieur de St.
Gre did not appear to see my perturbation.
"Be that as it may, if Helene suffered, she never gave a sign of it. The
marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and the world could only
conjecture what she thought of the Vicomte. It was deemed on both sides
a brilliant match.
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