Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/170

Rh from politics to omelettes, from the making of proselytes to the frying of artichokes. A breath too much has before now toppled down the most carefully built house of cards. When to let things alone is perhaps the subtlest, rarest, and most useful of all knowledge.

A man here and there has it; it may be said that no woman has, has had, or ever will have it. If Napoleon had had it he might have died at eighty at St. Cloud instead of St. Helena. But genius, like woman, never has been known to have it. For genius and caution are as far apart as the poles.

"Tout va bien," the Duc said to himself, taking off his hat to her when he saw Della Rocca by her carriage; meeting them in discussion before some painting or statue that she was about to buy; or watching them tête-à-tête on some couch of a ballroom, or in some nook of a gas-lit grove of camellias.

"Tout va bien," said the Duc, smiling to himself, and speeding on his way to his various missions, reconciling angry ladies, making the prettiest flatteries to pretty ones, seeking some Rh