Valmont died in a duel with a knight who admired Madame de Merteuil. Before his death, however, he handed over the letters between himself and Madame de Merteuil, and after Valmont's death, those letters spread throughout Paris.
People were utterly shocked, and the affair caused an enormous uproar. Yet not a single person was willing to speak up for her, so Madame de Merteuil had no choice but to live in the countryside for a time.
Once the rumors had died down—or once she believed they had—she returned to society, only to find that everything was completely different from when she had left.
One day, as usual, Madame de Merteuil went to the Italian Theatre to hear an opera. She had a private box there, yet no man dared enter it.
During the interval, the ladies were chatting in the salon. At first they spoke animatedly, but the moment Madame de Merteuil appeared, they suddenly fell silent. At the time, she did not realize they had been talking about her.
Then, when she spotted an empty seat and sat down, every woman in that row rose to her feet, leaving her sitting there all alone. Such an obvious gesture drew cheers from all the men present. The whispers grew louder and louder until they finally became a chorus of jeers.
Madame de Merteuil's predicament reminded Pomona of the beginning of La Traviata. When the writer entered the bedroom of that scandal-ridden woman, all the women who had been visiting the room came out.
Pomona closed the book in her hands.
Another book beside her was a novel by Oscar Wilde. Its protagonist, Dorian Gray, actually had much in common with Valmont.
Dorian Gray had listened to the advice of his "good friend," Henry, given up marrying the actress, and continued