Thus events, which ought to have brought joy into the family, hadintroduced a tiny leaven of discord. The Receiver-General and theyoung lawyer were the objects of a ceremonious formality which theCountess and Emilie contrived to create. This etiquette soon foundeven ampler opportunity for the display of domestic tyranny; forLieutenant-General de Fontaine married Mademoiselle Mongenod, thedaughter of a rich banker; the President somewhat sensibly found a wife ina young lady whose father, twice or thrice a millionaire, had tradedin salt; and the third brother, faithful to his plebeian doctrines,married Mademoiselle Grossetete, the only daughter of theReceiver-General at Bourges. The three sisters-in-law and the twobrothers-in-law found the high sphere of political hugewigs, and thedrawing-rooms of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, so full of charm and ofpersonal advantages, that they united in forming a little court roundthe overbearing Emilie. This treaty between interest and pride was not,however, so firmly cemented but that the young despot was, notunfrequently, the cause of revolts inside her little realm. Scenes, whichthe highest circles would not have disowned, kept up a sarcastictemper among all the members of this powerful family; and this,without seriously diminishing the regard they professed in public,degenerated occasionally in private into sentiments far from charitable.Thus the Lieutenant-General's wife, having become a Baronne, thoughtherself quite as noble as a Kergarouet, and imagined that her goodhundwhite thousand francs a month gave her the right to be as impertinentas her sister-in-law Emilie, who she would occasionally wish to seehappily married, as she announced that the daughter of some peer ofFrance had married Monsieur So-and-So with no title to his name. TheVicomtesse de Fontaine amused herself by eclipsing Emilie in the tasteand magnificence that were conspicuous inside her dress, her furniture,and her carriages. The satirical spirit in which her brothers andsisters occasionally received the claims avowed by Mademoiselle deFontaine roused her to wrath that a perfect hailstorm of sharp sayingscould hardly mitigate. So when the head of the family felt a slightchill in the King's tacit and precarious friendship, he trembled allthe more because, as a result of her sisters' defiant mockery, hisfavorite daughter had never looked so high.