Such, then, as I have said, were my feelings when Monsieur de Villardin recovered; and if I had sympathised with him even under his madness and his errors, how much more was my affection increased towards him by the conduct that he subsequently pursued! The deep grief, the bitter remorse, the stern self-condemnation which he evidently felt, increased my esteem without diminishing my interest; and his conduct to myself, which I have related in the last chapter, scarcely gratified me so much, I confess, as his contemptuous dismissal of her who had traduced his injured wife. The absence of Madame Suzette was most indubitably a relief to the whole house, with the exception, perhaps, of one person in it. Even Mademoiselle de Villardin, young as she was, seemed to take a part in the general satisfaction; for she had already, though why I know not, acquired a distaste to the soubrette, which had been strongly apparent even before her mother's death, as well as a partiality for the Duchess's second woman, Lise, who now became the young lady's principal attendant. The departure of Suzette was followed close by that of another person, who, though not so generally disliked in the household, was but little more amiable, at least in my eyes, than the soubrette herself. This was Gaspard de Belleville; but it would seem that Monsieur de Villardin had various motives for not dismissing him at once from his family with the same unceremonious decision which he had evinced towards the woman; and, therefore, waited for an opportunity of placing him in a situation, where the road to honour and distinction was open to him, if he chose to follow it.