“Cursy was remarkable for his ferocious industry. Nobody suspects the source to which Paris owes the patch-and-powder eighteenth century vaudevilles that flooded the stage. Those thousand-and-one vaudevilles, which raised such an outcry among the _feuilletonistes_, were written at Mme. du Bruel’s express desire. She insisted that her husband should purchase the hotel on which she had spent so much, where she had housed five hundred thousand francs’ worth of furniture. Wherefore Tullia never enters into explanations; she understands the sovereign woman’s reason to admiration. “‘People made a good deal of fun of Cursy,’ said she; ‘but, as a matter of fact, he found this house in the eighteenth century rouge-box, powder, puffs, and spangles. He would never have thought of it but for me,’ she added, burying herself in the cushions in her fireside corner. “She delivered herself thus on her return from a first night. Du Bruel’s piece had succeeded, and she foresaw an avalanche of criticisms. Tullia had her At Homes. Every Monday she gave a tea-party; her society was as select as might be, and she neglected nothing that could make her house pleasant. There was a bouillotte in one room, conversation in another, and sometimes a concert (always short) in the large drawing-room. None but the most eminent artists performed in the house. Tullia had so much good sense, that she attained to the most exquisite tact, and herein, in all probability, lay the secret of her ascendency over du Bruel; at any rate, he loved her with the love which use and wont at length makes indispensable to life. Every day adds another thread to the strong, irresistible, intangible web, which enmeshes the most delicate fancies, takes captive every most transient mood, and binding them together, holds a man captive hand and foot, heart and head. “Tullia knew Cursy well; she knew every weak point in his armor, knew also how to heal his wounds. “A passion of this kind is inscrutable for any observer, even for a man who prides himself, as I do, on a certain expertness. It is everywhere unfathomable; the dark depths in it are darker than in any other mystery; the colors confused even in the highest lights.