On leaving the Hotel de Mussidan, M. de Breulh-Faverlay dismissed his carriage,
for he felt as a man often does after experiencing some violent emotion, the
absolute necessity for exercise, and to be alone with his thoughts, and by so
doing recover his self-possession. His friends would have been surprised if they
had seen him pacing hurriedly along the Champs Elysees. The usual calm of his
manner had vanished, and the generally calm expression of his features was
entirely absent. As he walked, he talked to himself, and gesticulated.
"And this is what we call being a man of the world. We think ourselves true
philosophers, and a look from a pair of beautiful, pleading eyes scatters all our
theories to the winds."
He had loved Sabine upon the day on which he had asked for her hand, but not
so fondly as upon this day when he had learned that she could no longer be his
wife, for, from the moment he had made this discovery, she seemed to him more
gifted and fascinating than ever. No one could have believed that he, the idol of
society, the petted darling of the women, and the successful rival of the men,
could have been refused by the young girl to whom he had offered his hand.
"Yes," murmured he with a sigh, "for she is just the companion for life that I
longed for. Where could I find so intelligent an intellect and so pure a mind,
united with such radiant beauty, so different from the women of society, who live
but for dress and gossip. Has Sabine anything in common with those giddy girls
who look upon life as a perpetual value, and who take a husband as they do a
partner, because they cannot dance without one? How her face lighted up as she
spoke of him, and how thoroughly she puts faith in him! The end of it all is that I
shall die a bachelor. In my old age I will take to the pleasures of the table, for an
excellent authority declares that a man can enjoy his four meals a day with
comfort. Well, that is something to look forward to certainly, and it will not impair
my digestion if my heirs and expectants come and squabble round my armchair.
Ah," he added, with a deep sigh, "my life has been a failure."
M. de Breulh-Faverlay was a very different type of man to that which both his
friends and his enemies popularly supposed him to be. Upon the death of his
uncle, he had plunged into the frivolous vortex of Parisian dissipation, but of this
he had soon wearied.
All that he had cared for was to see the doings of his racehorse chronicled in the
sporting journals, and occasionally to expend a few thousand francs in presents
of jewelry to some fashionable actress. But he had secretly longed for some
more honorable manner of fulfilling his duties in life, and he had determined that
before his marriage he would sell his stud and break with his old associates
entirely; and now this wished-for marriage would never take place.
When he entered his club, the traces of his agitation were so visible upon his
face, that some of the card-players stopped their game to inquire if Chambertin,
the favorite for the Chantilly cup, had broken down.
