"
"Oh, reputation is nothing," laughed the lady, known as the
Princesse D'Agramont, an independent beauty of great wealth and
brilliant attainments, "Your butler can give you a reputation, or
take it away from you! But the Cardinal's reputation is truly
singular. It is goodness, merely! He is so good that he has become
actually famous for it! Now I once thought that to become famous for
goodness must surely imply that the person so celebrated had a very
hypocritical nature,--the worst of natures indeed;--that of
pretending to be what he was not,--but I was mistaken. Cardinal
Bonpre IS good. Absolutely sincere and noble--therefore a living
marvel in this age!"
"You are pleased to be severe, Princesse," said the Marquis, "Is
sincerity so difficult to find?"
"The most difficult of virtues!" answered the Princesse, lightly
tapping out a little tune with the jewelled handle of her riding
whip on the arm of her chair, "That is why I like horses and dogs so
much--they are always honest. And for that reason I am now inclined
to like Abbe Vergniaud whom I never liked before. He has turned
honest! To-day indeed he has been as straightforward as if he were
not a man at all!--and I admire him for it. He and his son will be
my guests at the Chateau D'Agramont.
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