Page:Madame de Staël (1887 Bella Duffy).djvu/80

70 like Suard, Morellet, and Laharpe; and aristocrats, some of them altogether soured and worn out, like Castellane, Choiseul, and Narbonne. Into this political menagerie Constant fell like a spirit from another world. Applauding the Revolution, yet having played no part in it, he was its virgin knight. There was something strange and attractive, also, in his appearance: a certain awkwardness in figure and gesture joined to a handsome, clever young face and long fair hair. Just at that moment (1795) the predominant tendency in Madame de Staël's salon was hostile to the Government. She professed herself already to be converted to Republicanism, and probably was so in theory, but she had not yet overcome her aversion to the real revolutionaries. Either directly through her influence or with her tacit consent, Constant was induced to publish three letters protesting against the admission of two-thirds of the old Convention into the new body of Representatives. The success which followed was prodigious. All the women of the Royalist party flattered and caressed him; and all the journalists extolled him to the skies. Constant, however, was not the man to bear that kind of petting long; he required excitement with some keener edge to it, and was, moreover, too logical, too naturally enlightened and liberal, to endorse reactionary platitudes. He hastened to disavow the letters; and although he did not find it easy to disabuse the public mind of its first impression, he was careful not to deepen this by any further mistakes. During the following four years, his intimacy with Madame de Staël flourished and grew apace. They acted and reacted upon one another by the law of their opposing natures. His ardour was as uncertain as hers was