In
one sense she was all that a worldly mother, thirty-eight years of age
and still a beauty with claims to admiration, could have wished.
However, to counterbalance her personal defects, the marquise gave her
daughter a distinguished air, subjected her to hygienic treatment
which provisionally kept her nose at a reasonable flesh-tint, taught
her the art of dressing well, endowed her with charming manners,
showed her the trick of melancholy glances which interest a man and
make him believe that he has found a long-sought angel, taught her the
manoeuvre of the foot,--letting it peep beneath the petticoat, to show
its tiny size, at the moment when the nose became aggressively red; in
short, Madame d'Aubrion had cleverly made the very best of her
offspring. By means of full sleeves, deceptive pads, puffed dresses
amply trimmed, and high-pressure corsets, she had obtained such
curious feminine developments that she ought, for the instruction of
mothers, to have exhibited them in a museum.
Charles became very intimate with Madame d'Aubrion precisely because
she was desirous of becoming intimate with him. Persons who were on
board the brig declared that the handsome Madame d'Aubrion neglected
no means of capturing so rich a son-in-law. On landing at Bordeaux in
June, 1827, Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle d'Aubrion, and Charles
lodged at the same hotel and started together for Paris. The hotel
d'Aubrion was hampered with mortgages; Charles was destined to free
it.
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