A TRAGIC IDYL BY PAUL BOURGET AUTHOR OF "OUTRE-MER," ETC. LONDON DOWNEY AND CO. LTD. 12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1896 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Le "Tout Europe" II. The Cry of a Soul III. A Scruple IV. Lovers' Resolutions V. Afloat VI. Il Matrimonio Segreto VII. Olivier du Prat VIII. Friend and Mistress IX. Friend and Mistress--_continued_ X. A Vow XI. Between Two Tragedies XII. The Dénouement A TRAGIC IDYL CHAPTER I LE "TOUT EUROPE" That night (toward the end of February, 188--) a vast crowd was thronging the halls of the Casino at Monte Carlo. It was one of the momentary occasions, well known to all who have passed the winter season on the Corniche, when a sudden and prodigious afflux of composite humanity transfigures that place, ordinarily so vulgar with the brutal luxury of the people whom it satisfies. The gay madness that breaks out at Nice during the Carnival attracts to this little point of the Riviera the moving army of pleasure hunters and adventurers, while the beauty of the climate allures thousands of invalids and people weary of living, the victims of disease and of ill fortune; and on certain nights, like that on which this narrative begins, when the countless representatives of the various classes, scattered ordinarily along the coast, suddenly rush together into the gaming-house, their fantastic variety of character appears in all its startling incongruities, with the aspect of a cosmopolitan pandemonium, dazzling and sinister, deafening and tragical, ridiculous and painful, strewn with all the wrecks of luxury and vice of every country and of every class, the victims of every misfortune and disaster. In this stifling atmosphere, amid the glitter of insolent and ignoble wealth, the ancient monarchies were represented by three princes of the house of Bourbon, and the modern by two grand-nephews of Bonaparte, all five recognizable by their profiles, which were reproduced on hundreds of the gold and silver coins rolling before them on the green tables.