At forty, she was still the wealthiest unmarried princess in Europe; fastidious in toilette, stainless in reputation, not lovely in temper, rigid in etiquette, learned in precedence, an oracle in court traditions, a terror to the young maids-of-honor, and always quarrelling with her own sisters, younger, fairer, poorer than herself.

Still save each soul from guilt apart As stainless as each sword And guard undimmed in every heart The image of our Lord!

With every instinct of her nature recoiling from the very shadow of crimes the world winks at, the family record had been stainless for a generation.

Rust protested that the bloom upon the unplucked peach was not, in his eyes, more stainless than the reputation of Madame.