The great stars of the
law-courts were rapidly disappearing; and Victorin Hulot, gifted with
a shrewd tongue and strict honesty, was listened to by the Bench and
Councillors; he studied his cases thoroughly, and advanced nothing
that he could not prove. He would not hold every brief that offered;
in fact, he was a credit to the bar.
The Baroness' home in the Rue Plumet had become so odious to her, that
she allowed herself to be taken to the Rue Louis-le-Grand. Thus, by
her son's care, Adeline occupied a fine apartment; she was spared all
the daily worries of life; for Lisbeth consented to begin again,
working wonders of domestic economy, such as she had achieved for
Madame Marneffe, seeing here a way of exerting her silent vengeance on
those three noble lives, the object, each, of her hatred, which was
kept growing by the overthrow of all her hopes.
Once a month she went to see Valerie, sent, indeed, by Hortense, who
wanted news of Wenceslas, and by Celestine, who was seriously uneasy
at the acknowledged and well-known connection between her father and a
woman to whom her mother-in-law and sister-in-law owed their ruin and
their sorrows. As may be supposed, Lisbeth took advantage of this to
see Valerie as often as possible.
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