This gentleman was the only brother of Madame St.
Aubert; but the ties of relationship having never been strengthened by
congeniality of character, the intercourse between them had not been
frequent. M. Quesnel had lived altogether in the world; his aim had been
consequence; splendour was the object of his taste; and his address
and knowledge of character had carried him forward to the attainment of
almost all that he had courted. By a man of such a disposition, it is
not surprising that the virtues of St. Aubert should be overlooked; or
that his pure taste, simplicity, and moderated wishes, were considered
as marks of a weak intellect, and of confined views. The marriage of his
sister with St. Aubert had been mortifying to his ambition, for he had
designed that the matrimonial connection she formed should assist him
to attain the consequence which he so much desired; and some offers were
made her by persons whose rank and fortune flattered his warmest hope.
But his sister, who was then addressed also by St. Aubert, perceived, or
thought she perceived, that happiness and splendour were not the same,
and she did not hesitate to forego the last for the attainment of the
former. Whether Monsieur Quesnel thought them the same, or not, he would
readily have sacrificed his sister's peace to the gratification of his
own ambition; and, on her marriage with St. Aubert, expressed in private
his contempt of her spiritless conduct, and of the connection which it
permitted. Madame St. Aubert, though she concealed this insult from her
husband, felt, perhaps, for the first time, resentment lighted in
her heart; and, though a regard for her own dignity, united with
considerations of prudence, restrained her expression of this
resentment, there was ever after a mild reserve in her manner towards M.
Quesnel, which he both understood and felt.
In his own marriage he did not follow his sister's example. His lady was
an Italian, and an heiress by birth; and, by nature and education, was a
vain and frivolous woman.
They now determined to pass the night with St. Aubert; and as the
chateau was not large enough to accommodate their servants, the latter
were dismissed to the neighbouring village. When the first compliments
were over, and the arrangements for the night made M. Quesnel began the
display of his intelligence and his connections; while St. Aubert, who
had been long enough in retirement to find these topics recommended by
their novelty, listened, with a degree of patience and attention,
which his guest mistook for the humility of wonder. The latter, indeed,
described the few festivities which the turbulence of that period
permitted to the court of Henry the Third, with a minuteness, that
somewhat recompensed for his ostentation; but, when he came to speak of
the character of the Duke de Joyeuse, of a secret treaty, which he knew
to be negotiating with the Porte, and of the light in which Henry of
Navarre was received, M. St. Aubert recollected enough of his former
experience to be assured, that his guest could be only of an inferior
class of politicians; and that, from the importance of the subjects
upon which he committed himself, he could not be of the rank to which he
pretended to belong. The opinions delivered by M. Quesnel, were such as
St. Aubert forebore to reply to, for he knew that his guest had neither
humanity to feel, nor discernment to perceive, what is just.