after the dessert. No female head could have resisted the exhilarating
force of such continual adulation. In winter the warm salon, always
well-lighted with wax candles, was well-filled with the richest people
of Soulanges, who paid for the good liqueurs and the fine wines which
came from dear mistress's cellars, with flatteries to their hostess.
These visitors and their wives had a life-interest, as it were, in
this luxury; which was to them a saving of lights and fuel. Thus it
came to pass that in a circuit of fifteen miles and even as far as
Ville-aux-Fayes, every voice was ready to declare: "Madame Soudry does
the honors admirably. She keeps open house; every one enjoys her
salon; she knows how to carry herself and her fortune; she always says
the witty thing, she makes you laugh. And what splendid silver! There
is not another house like it short of Paris--"

The silver had been given to Mademoiselle Laguerre by Bouret. It was a
magnificent service made by the famous Germain, and Madame Soudry had
literally stolen it. At Mademoiselle Laguerre's death she merely took
it into her own room, and the heirs, who knew nothing of the value of
their inheritance, never claimed it.

For some time past the twelve or fifteen personages who composed the
leading society of Soulanges spoke of Madame Soudry as the _intimate
friend_ of Mademoiselle Laguerre, recoiling at the term
"waiting-woman," and making believe that she had sacrificed herself
to the singer as her friend and companion.

Strange yet true! all these illusions became realities, and spread
even to the actual regions of the heart; Madame Soudry reigned
supreme, in a way, over her husband.