Auguste Saint-Clair was not loved in the so-called "great light"; the main reason was that he tried to please only those who fit his heart. He walked towards one and carefully avoided the others. Moreover, he was careless and absent-minded.
He was proud and proud. He cherished the opinions of others. He called on all his strength, trying to learn to hide everything that was considered a humiliating weakness.
In the light, he soon gained the notoriety of a man indifferent and unresponsive. Saint-Clair did not believe in friendship.
Saint Clair was, however, a pleasant person to talk to. His shortcomings only harmed him personally. It was rarely bored with him.
Saint-Clair was very attentive to women; he preferred their male conversation. If such an outwardly cold man loved someone, the object of his passion could only be - everyone knew that - the pretty Countess Matilda de Courcy. This was a young widow whom he visited with rare persistence.
The countess went to the healing waters, and Saint-Clair soon went after her.
After one of the dates, he was unusually happy, admired de Courcy, rejoiced that she preferred him to many other fans.
On the same evening, Saint-Clair arrives at a meeting of young bachelors, where his friend Alfons de Temin is present. Young people discuss how to achieve the love of pretty women. They try to derive a general formula of originality, so that, following it, everyone will like it. Saint-Clair told how he would conquer beauties, even if they were hunchbacked: he would enchant plaintive or eccentric persons.
Temin said that he considers the main weapon a pleasant appearance and the ability to dress with taste. As an example, he began talking about the very Countess de Courcy, who had once been enchanted by a certain Masigny: “The stupidest and most empty of people turned the head of the smartest of women. After this, will you say that with a hump you can achieve such success? Believe me: you only need a good appearance, a good tailor and courage. ”
Saint-Clair was furious. He remembered the Etruscan vase - a gift from Masigny, which de Courcy carefully kept and even took with her to the waters. And every evening, chipping off her boutonniere, the countess put her in an Etruscan vase.
The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Theodore Neville from Egypt. He talks about the customs there. Saint-Clair slowly went home, where he began to worry very much about the fact that the countess was the same woman as everyone, but he thought that she had loved only him alone in her life. She, our hero thinks, doesn’t care: Masigny or Saint-Clair. He is tormented, but still goes back to de Courcy on a date.
She is incredibly affectionate with him, indulges him in every detail. Gives a repaired watch with its own portrait. Saint-Clair relents: now he believes that she loves him.
In the morning, his joy is again overshadowed. He sees the vase again, and it is de Corsi's road. And her portrait on his repaired watch was made by an artist whom Masigny had once introduced to her.
Saint-Clair is already beginning to think whether it is worth marrying her or not after her one-year mourning. Immersed in gloomy thoughts, rides a horse and meets another rider - de Temin. Saint-Clair is so annoyed that he starts a trifling quarrel, and Temin challenges him to a duel.
In the evening with the Countess, Saint-Clair was deliberately cheerful, which causes her discontent, she thinks he is angry.
They begin to talk about who more often falls into the trap of false love - men or women. The countess tells him how she once made fun of Masigny, who was in love with her: he sent her a declaration of love, and she asked her cousin to read it aloud without naming names. Everyone laughed at his stupid and inept style, and Masigny was defeated.
Saint-Clair realizes that he was fooled, and the countess was never in love with Masigny. He tells everything to her, and they are happy hugging. Then the countess smashes the Etruscan vase.
The next day, Temin kills Saint-Clair in a duel.
For three years, the countess does not want to see anyone. Then her cousin Julie returns from wandering and takes her to the islands. But de Courcy has already ruined herself - she held out at the resort for three to four months, and then died of chest disease.
