With, I am bound to confess, a degree of success. At any rate it was difficult to mix with the throng which filled her rooms, to run the gauntlet of bright eyes and witty tongues, to breathe the atmosphere laden with perfume and music, without falling under the spell, without forgetting. Inside the door M. de Gontaut, one of my father's oldest friends, was talking with the two Harincourts. He greeted me with a sly smile, and pointed politely inwards. "Pass on, Monsieur," he said. "The farthest room. Ah! my friend, I wish I were young again!" "Your gain would be my loss, M. le Baron," I said civilly, and slid by him. Next, I had to speak to two or three ladies, who detained me with wicked congratulations of the same kind; and then I came on Louis. He clasped my hand, and we stood a moment together. The crowd elbowed us; a simpering fool at his shoulder was prating of the social contract. But as I felt the pressure of Louis' hand, and looked into his eyes, it seemed to me that a breath of air from the woods penetrated the room, and swept aside the heavy perfumes. Yet there was trouble in his look. He asked me if I had seen Victor. "Yesterday," I said, understanding him perfectly, and what was amiss. "Not to-day." "Nor Denise?" "No. I have not had the honour of seeing Mademoiselle." "Then, come," he answered. "My mother expected you earlier. What did you think of Victor?" "That he went Victor, and has returned a great personage!" I said, smiling. Louis laughed faintly, and lifted his eyebrows with a comical air of sufferance. "I was afraid so," he said. "He did not seem to be very well pleased with you. But we must all do his bidding--eh, Monsieur? And, in the meantime, come. My mother and Denise are in the farthest room." He led the way thither as he spoke; but we had first to go through the card-room, and then the crowd about the farther doorway was so dense that we could not immediately enter; and so I had time--while outwardly smiling and bowing--to feel a little suspense. At last we slipped through and entered a smaller room, where were only Madame la Marquise--who was standing in the middle of the floor talking with the Abbé Mesnil--two or three ladies, and Denise de St. Alais.