Thanks
to his intimacy with the Prince de Cadignan, Master of the Hunt, he
saw his chance of displaying an almost regal pomp before Modeste's
eyes, and alluring her with a glimpse of court fascinations, to which
she could be introduced by marriage. Glances were exchanged between
the duke and the two demoiselles d'Herouville, which plainly said,
"The heiress is ours!" and the poet, who detected them, and who had
nothing but his personal splendors to depend on, determined all the
more firmly to obtain some pledge of affection at once. Modeste, on
the other hand, half-frightened at being thus pushed beyond her
intentions by the d'Herouvilles, walked rather markedly apart with
Melchior, when the company adjourned to the park after dinner. With
the pardonable curiosity of a young girl, she let him suspect the
calumnies which Helene had poured into her ears; but on Canalis's
exclamation of anger, she begged him to keep silence about them, which
he promised.
"These stabs of the tongue," he said, "are considered fair in the
great world. They shock your upright nature; but as for me, I laugh at
them; I am even pleased.
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