Let those who desire to see how beauty can be retained, though disfigured by devilish passion, study the face of the Marchioness in this drawing. For skilful arrangement of light and shade, and of the objects that go to make up the _mise en scène_, and for natural action in the figures; this drawing takes the lead of all the admirable illustrations in the "Marchioness of Brinvilliers."
"THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS" (_continued_).
A great reception was given at Versailles by the King. M. d'Aubray was "suffering from a sudden and fearful indisposition, but he insisted upon his daughter accepting an invitation, were it only to establish her _entrée_ into society."
There, amongst the trees in the gardens, the Marchioness encounters Sainte-Croix. "His face looked ghastly in the moonbeams, and his eyes gleamed with a light that conscience made demoniac in the eyes of the Marchioness."
"'Where should I be but in the place of rejoicing just now?' replied Gaudin through his set teeth, and with a sardonic smile. 'I am this moment from Paris. We are free!'
"'My father?' cried the Marchioness, as a terrible expression overspread her countenance.
"'He is dead,' returned Sainte-Croix, 'and we are free!'"
There was a pause, and they looked at each other for nearly a minute.
"'Come,' at length said the Marchioness, 'come to the ball.'"
A prominent and very interesting figure in Mr. Smith's book is Louise Gauthier, a girl of comparatively humble birth, who had the misfortune to love Sainte-Croix with the intense self-sacrificing love that good women so often show for bad men, who return their affection with coldness and neglect. This girl, who had become the friend of Marotte Dupré, one of the actresses in the plays of Molière which were part of the attraction at the Versailles fête, accompanied the actress to Versailles, where she accidentally overheard a conversation between the Marchioness of Brinvilliers and M. de Sainte-Croix, which not only convinced her that the love for her that Sainte-Croix had once professed was given to another, but that some fearful tie existed between the two, caused by actions which had destroyed their happiness here and their hopes of it hereafter.
She came from her concealment, and was received with jealous fury by the Marchioness, who believed, or affected to believe, that the girl was at "the grotto" by appointment with Sainte-Croix. She bestowed what is commonly called "a piece of her mind" upon her lover, and concluded her rhapsody by informing him that from henceforth "we meet no more." Louise, however, convinced the passionate Marchioness that she had made no appointment, but was at "the grotto" by, "perhaps, a dispensation of Providence," in order that she might, having overheard their guilty conversation, so act upon their consciences as to "save them both."
