"The castle of Colobrières was like a hive that every year threw off the swarms it could no longer feed or shelter. As the elder children grew up, they departed successively to seek their sustenance elsewhere. The baron was too thoroughly penetrated with a sense of what was due to his rank, to suffer any of his children to derogate from their birth. Notwithstanding the penury to which they were reduced, not one of them forgot what beseemed his blood: seven sons became monks, or entered the king's service, and five daughters put on the robe of the order of Notre Dame de la Misericorde, into which young ladies of quality were received without dowery. Of so numerous a progeny there at last remained in the castle only the two youngest, a son and a daughter, whom the baron used to call with a sigh the props of his age.

it embraced only the cooking department in the mansion of M. le Baron; but, besides this, the stout girl did all the work of the household, and assisted Madame la Baronne to spin the thread for the family linen.

"The architecture of the château de Colobrières belonged to various periods. The large tower that formed, as it were, the nucleus of the whole, was in the Roman style, massive, square, and with circularly arched openings; the buildings round it dated from the renaissance. A Colobrières, captain of a company of adventurers, having served with success in the great Italian wars, and been present at the sack of Rome, returned home from his campaigns with a large booty. He renovated his ancestral manor, held high court in it with a number of boon companions, and died, bequeathing to his heirs nothing but the handsome mansion he had erected, and its valuable pictures and furniture. At the period of our story, the modern structures round the old keep were already greatly dilapidated; the furniture was sadly worn, and had, in a great measure, disap

"Gaston de Colobrières, or, as he was called by the people of the country, the cadet of Colobrières, was a handsome young man of five-andtwenty, an intrepid sportsman, high-spirited, but shy withal, so that he would look another way if he chanced to meet a country-girl on his path.peared in passing through the hands of five or six This rustic Hippolytus was continually roaming, with his gun on his shoulder, over the lands of the barony, which were fertile only in game. In this way he turned the estate to the best account, for were it not for the game he brought home every day, the inhabitants of the castle would have been reduced almost to dry bread for their four meals.

"The baron's youngest daughter, Mademoiselle Anastasie, was a handsome brunette, with a pale and pensive cast of countenance. She had magnificent black hair, and eyes whose dark pupils shone with a changeful light through their long fringes. Her hands were small and delicate; and teeth of pearly lustre were seen with the least smile that parted her rosy lips. And yet it had never entered the head of any one in her little world to think her pretty. On Sunday, when she went to hear mass in a neighboring village, the bumpkins used to look at her as she passed without the least admiration. Her father, indeed, admitted that she had about her a certain air that betokened the young lady of quality; but her mother remarked with sorrow the pale gipsy complexion that tarnished her, as it were, and would rather have seen her cheeks glowing with red and white. She herself had no suspicion of her own beauty, and had never been instigated by her mirror to harbor the least thought of pride or coquetry.

generations; and there actually remained of the antique splendor of the Colobrières only a few waifs and strays, now looked on as relics, such as a trunk inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, in which the baron kept his archives, a clock with musical bells, and six silver spoons and forks engraved with the Colobrières arms. No repairs had been made for some fifty years in the roof or in the outer wood-work; so that the windows were for the most part unglazed and without shutters, and the rain had rotted the floors. The rooms on the first floor were no longer inhabitable, and the family resided in the arched rooms of the ground-floor, the temperature of which was nearly that of a cellar, warm in winter, and cool in the height of summer.

"The chapel was in a state of utter dilapidation, and for many a year the Colobrières family had gone to a neighboring village to hear mass. This was a great mortification to the baroness, who had never indulged more than one ambitious dream in her life, viz., that of possessing some fifty crowns with which she might repair the chapel, and have mass celebrated in it on Sundays and holidays by some Minorite friar, whom she would afterwards invite to dinner; but there was no likelihood that the baron's finances could ever suffice for such an outlay, and the good lady submitted with as much resignation as she could to this hard privation. Every Sunday, whether it "The life led in the castle of Colobrières was rained or shone, the family set out on foot in a one of the narrowest and most monotonous routine. certain costume that varied little with the change The gentry of the neighborhood did not seek the of seasons. The baron wore an old reddish-brown society of the baron, who, for his part, had no wish coat, still decent, but bearing proofs of its long that they should be witnesses of his proud poverty; service in the equivocal lustre of the seams. His and the only intercourse kept up by the family stockings of rockspun silk, drawn without a consisted in the weekly visits of a good priest, wrinkle over a leg that must once have been who had been for thirty years curé of a village not shapely enough, descended into large shoes with far from Colobrières. Of yore the lords of Colo- buckles, and his napless three-cornered hat greatly brières had had pages and squires, and there was needed to be handled with extreme caution. even among the apartments in the castle one which Madame de Colobrières accompanied him in a was still called the hall of the guards; but in the skirt of gros-de-Tour, somewhat faded, with a period of its decay, of which we are here speak-taffety mantle that dated from her marriage. ing, the whole retinue consisted of an old laquais, Their children had no other adornment than their who entirely neglected the duties of the pantry and good looks. The young man wore a serge-coat, the ante-chamber to devote himself to the culture and a coarse felt hat like the peasants; the young of the kitchen-garden, and of a servant-girl, named lady had a brown cotton frock, a kerchief of Madeleine Panozon, and surnamed La Rousse, sprigged muslin, and a little hat set on the crown whose business would have been light enough, if of her head, and under which her hair was

gathered back from her face. The only change
made at long intervals in this costume was, that
the hat had sometimes a new riband. Hard as it
must have been to feel the constant pinching of
such narrow means-a hundred times more diffi-
cult to endure than naked and avowed poverty-I
still a sort of permanent serenity prevailed in the
Colobrières family, and their mutual concord was
never disturbed. The young people especially led
a life unruffled by vain longings and anxious fore-
thought, contenting themselves with the little they
had, and never repining over the decay of their
fortune and their house.

"She thinks of us! She loves us still,' murmured the baroness.

"What does that matter to you, madam?' replied the baron, indignantly. What is there in common at present between us and that woman! am really vexed with myself that I mentioned the subject to you.'

"With these words he rose and hurried from the room as if to cut short the conversation. The baroness remained alone in deep thought. For thirty years the name of Agathe de Colobrières had not been breathed in her presence. It was forbidden to speak of her in that castle where she was born, and neither Gaston nor his young sister was aware even of her existence. And yet she was near akin to them; she was the Baron de Colobrières' own sister-his only sister.

"One Whitmonday, after mass, whilst the baroness and her children were returning to the castle, the baron loitered awhile in the village market-place, where some itinerant merchants had set up their booths. It was the grand holiday time "Thirty years before, Mademoiselle de Coloof that part of the country, and the merchants brières was residing in the paternal mansion, which were doing a brisk business with their latten rings, she had never quitted. She was approaching the pinchbeck crosses, and glass chaplets. The baron mature age of maidenhood. She was no longer a bought an ell of riband for his daughter, cheapened delicate bud sheltering timidly beneath the foliage, a chifarcani gown, sighed, and did not buy it. but a splendid, full-blown rose, whose fragrant After dinner that day he did not leave the table petals would be scattered by the first breath of immediately, as was his custom, to take his siesta, wind. This beautiful girl belonged to a house too but remained in his chair, leaning back with his poor, too noble, and too proud to make it feasible, eyes fixed in deep reflection. Gaston and his sis- even in thought, to find a husband for her. It ter had stolen out noiselessly, thinking that their was decided that she should enter a convent; but parents were dozing on either side of the table. as she had no vocation for the monastic life, she "Instead of sleeping the baron was half-whist-temporized and remained in the castle even after ling between his teeth, which in him was a token the death of her parents and her brother's marof deep cogitation, and tapping alternately his riage.

plate and his empty glass. The baroness soon Still it was a settled thing that she was to be yielded to the influence of this music; her eyes a nun, and she never conceived the thought of closed, and she fell asleep in the effort to guess what it could be that her husband was thinking of so intensely. After half an hour's silence the baron heaved an explosive sigh, looked up at the ceiling, and said,

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'I heard news to-day of Agathe de Colobrières.'

"Eh-what-I beg your pardon: did you speak?' ejaculated the baroness jumping up in her chair, and staring at her husband in bewildered surprise.

"I say,' replied the baron, coldly, that a pedlar in the fair told me news of Agathe de Colobrières.'

"Holy Virgin! and what did he tell you?' "Things I was far from expecting, certainly. Agathe has had more good luck than she deserved. In the first place that man, her husband, that Maragnon is dead.'

"The old lady crossed herself. "Next,' continued the baron, he has left a very large fortune.'

"Are there children?' inquired the baroness, trembling with emotion.

"There have been several; but of all that hopeful lineage of the Maragnons there remains but one girl.'

"And the merchant that told you this saw Agathe, perhaps?'

He did; and she told him that if she dared she would send her compliments to me.' "Poor woman!' murmured Madame de Colobrières.

"Send me her compliments, indeed; I would not have received them!' cried the baron, striking the table with his fist. 'Wretch that she is! she dares still to utter the name of Colobrières! She! Madame Maragnon!?

saying no, perhaps because she could see no chance of escaping her lot; only she would fall at times into fits of deep dejection, and weep in the baroness' presence without ever divulging the cause of her tears. The family was augmenting every year. The castellan of Colobrières had already six children, and poor Agathe felt plainly she must depart and make room for those little ones. Neither the baron nor his wife pressed her to fulfil her resolution; but her entrance into the convent was considered as near at hand, and was talked of every day.

"While things were in this state, it happened that some itinerant merchants presented themselves one evening at the gate of the castle. The weather was frightful; the rain, which had fallen in torrents, had broken up the roads, and the poor travellers could not reach the village, where they would have found shelter and a place to lie down, The baron generously opened his door to them, which was really all the kindness he was able to bestow upon them. They took up their quarters in an empty hall not far from the stable, where they sheltered their baggage mules, and made their arrangements for passing the night there. The baroness had seen their arrival from her window, and said soon after to her sister-in-law:

"I should like to lay out five or six francs with these merchants. The children's things are made up for the season; but you and I—it is mor tifying to be obliged to go to mass with our plain hats and our fichus de lisard. You in particular, my dear, are sadly in want of a new kerchief.'

What would be the good of it, sister?' replied Mademoiselle de Colobrières with a sigh, 'I should not have long to wear it; I shall soon have no more need of such things.'

"Never mind,' said the baroness; and casting

a stealthy glance at her husband, who was dozing | said bitterly, 'What is this in comparison with the at the table with his nose on an old book of noble wants of this house? It is a drop of water on a families of which he every evening read a few burnt soil. If this money were mine I would not lines, she added in a lower tone, I have saved a spend it, but cast it to the first poor creature that few fifteen sous pieces, and will put them into your stopped at the castle gate.' The clock struck hands; but be sure your brother does not know nine at this moment, Agathe thought it was time anything of the matter. By and by, when we are to discharge her commission. Too proud and well gone to our bed-room, do you go to these mer-bred to think even for a moment of going down chants and buy what you think best.'

"So saying she went to the cupboard in which she kept her most valuable hoards, fetched from it a rather limp-looking little purse of leather, and gave it to Mademoiselle de Colobrières.

said.

"There are six livres fifteen sous in it,' she 'Mind you go cleverly to work with these people. Besides your kerchief and our ribands try to get two ells of Italian gauze, to make us capelines, and some green taffety to cover our parasols. You will very likely have to do with Jews, so be on your guard. In short, I rely on you to lay out the money discreetly.'

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alone to the itinerant merchants, she went into the children's room, and gently wakened the eldest girl, who was her god-daughter and her favorite. The little girl was soon ready; her aunt took her by the hand, and both went away together with noiseless steps.

"The hall in which the merchants were quartered was a very large room, that still retained some traces of its original state. Many a gay and splendid banquet it had doubtless witnessed of yore; here and there on the panels was still to be seen a cornucopiæ entwined with garlands of roses; and heads of satyrs, laughing from ear to Make your mind easy, sister,' said Agathe, ear, projected from each corner of the tall chimneytaking the purse with a faint smile. Look, piece, the casing of which was adorned with a there's my brother opening his eyes and turning figure of Bacchus, sculptured in high relief, and over a page of his book; take him away if you surrounded by all the attributes of the jolly god. wish me to go quickly and make your purchases.' But all trace of furniture had vanished from this "The baron and his wife soon retired to their banquet hall, where no revels had been held for large chamber, the broken windows of which let more than a century; the carpets had given place in a sharp little breeze that put out the lights. to the green moss, that invested the marble slabs Mademoiselle de Colobrières likewise withdrew to of the floor, and spiders had woven filmy curtains her little bedroom. It lay at the extremity of a before the half-broken windows. The temporary suite of very large rooms, and had formerly been occupants of this dismantled hall had arranged the oratory of the ladies of the castle. The ceil- themselves in it with the peculiar adroitness of ing was adorned with cherubims' heads encom- men accustomed to long travelling and scant acpassed with garlands, and with their outspread commodation. They had contrived to make an wings meeting one another, and the shield, with extemporaneous suite of furniture out of their the thistle, vert, springing from a tower, masoned, goods; two chests, placed together and covered sable, figured proudly in every direction. A cross with a green cloth, served for a table: some bales of exquisite workmanship, but with its delicate did service for chairs, and a tolerable light was inlaying much impaired, was fixed over a worm-afforded by one of those large canvass lanterns. eaten prayer-desk, from the angles of which pro- which wagoners hang by night from the pole of truded broken-nosed visages of saints. The scanty the wagon. bed, laid on tressels, and covered with a huge counterpane of faded silk, stood opposite a table, the only drawer of which contained all the worldly possessions of Agathe de Colobrières, that is to say, her slender ward-robe, some devotional books, and a little enamelled gold cross that had been her mother's. The poor young lady had hardly ever in her life handled coined metal, and she could not have added a farthing to the store amassed by the baroness. As she entered the room she threw the purse on the table, sat down pensively, and thought of all things that money procures, and of the omnipotence of that vile and precious form of matter. "The itinerant merchant rose from his seat in For her, money was the realization of all her some surprise at the appearance of the handsome longings and her chimeras; it was happiness, lib-young lady, who had paused in the middle of the erty! She took up the purse and shook it, whispering to herself with a long-drawn sigh, If I had twenty or thirty thousand of these little pieces how happy should all be here! I would have the castle repaired; we should all have new dresses every season. The store-rooms should be well stocked-there should never be any uneasy thought as he pushed forward one of the bales that served for the morrow; there would be something to give instead of chairs, 'Be pleased to take a seat, to the poor, and I should not enter the convent. madame. Had you sent for me I should have But I have nothing-nothing-and I cannot work obeyed your orders. I will instantly unpack the to earn my bread. I must go where the good God laces and silks, the best things in my assortment.' in his mercy will provide me with food and rai-Show me your kerchiefs and ribands,' said ment.'

"She opened the purse and turned out its contents on her palm; then after looking on them for a moment she closed her hand upon the coin, and

"Agathe de Colobrières tapped at the door, and entered, holding her niece with one hand, whilst the other was plunged into the depths of the pocket in which she carried the baroness' savings. Had she been about to present herself thus far before persons of her own quality, she would have experienced an insurmountable embarrassment, and would have been very awkward and confused; but she felt no difficulty in accosting these low people; and slightly bending her head she said merely, Good evening. May I trouble you to let me see your goods?"

6

room, and stood waiting with an air of quiet selfpossession and modest dignity until he should display his stock. Though dressed in a shabby drugget gown she had the bearing of a princess, and the pride of her race was legible on her broad open front. The merchant bowed respectfully, and said,

Agathe, seating herself and taking the child on her lap, who was beginning to gaze curiously around her. Mademoiselle de Colobrières herself, too, began to observe with some surprise the various

"Never mind, mademoiselle,' was the merchant's eager reply; 'do me the honor to choose whatever you may please to require; you will pay me another time.

"Agathe shook her head; but the merchant persisted: You can discharge this little debt in a year, if convenient to you, mademoiselle: I shall be here again by that time."

"When that time comes I shall not be here,' said Mademoiselle de Colobrières, sadly. No finery is needed where I am going, but a black woollen gown to be worn all the year, and a veil that is never changed.'

"You are going into a convent, mademoiselle?' said the merchant with a guarded expression of surprise and interest.

objects in the room. The bales of merchandise | melancholy dignity: We are not rich; here is all were regularly piled up at one end, and behind the I can lay out with you at present.' screen made by them, lay the sleeping figure of a man rolled up in his travelling cloak. His silver spurs shone in the faint light, and his gun rested against the wall within reach of his hand. This measure of precaution was probably occasioned by the bad state of the locks and the fastenings in the castle, and by the important amount of specie and negotiable paper in a valise that stood on the table, The merchant had, apparently, been arranging his accounts at the moment that Agathe entered. A morocco leather portfolio, the pages of which were full of figures, lay open beside the valise, and from the latter there had escaped handfuls of sixlivre pieces mingled with louis d'or. The owner of this wealth was a man still young and of pleasing appearance; he did not appear superior to his condition in language and manners, but there was a certain intelligence and decision in his countenance that stood him instead of high breeding. With an indifferent air he thrust back into the valise all that fine coin, the sight of which astonished Agathe, and began to unfold his handkerchiefs and ribands. Never had Mademoiselle Colobrières seen such magnificent fabrics; there were Smyrna crapes, and Indian satins brocaded with flowers, butterflies and birds, and ribands of all colors interwoven with gold and silver. The little girl cried out in ecstasy at the sight of all these fine things; while Agathe looked on them in silence with a bewildered eye, and was rather embarrassed how to declare that they were all too handsome for her. The merchant apparently did not guess the cause of her hesitation, for he said, pushing aside the boxes he had opened, "I think I can show you something still better.'

"Pray do not trouble yourself to search further,' said Agathe, with a sigh, as she took out her little purse; "I only want a very plain handkerchief; something simple and cheap. All these things are too elegant.'

"Pardon me, madame la baronne, nothing can be elegant enough for you,' replied the merchant politely.

"I am not Madame Colobrières,' said Agathe, blushing, I am her sister-in-law. It would not be becoming for a young lady to wear such sumptuous things.'

"Oh, do, do, aunt, dress yourself out fine for once!' exclaimed the child; you have never done so, nor we either.'

"People who live all the year round in the country have no need of so much dress,' interposed Mademoiselle de Colobrières, hastily, in hopes to put a stop to the child's prattle; but the little creature was too much excited by the splendid things the merchant continued to place before her, and she went on with unchecked volubility:

"But indeed, indeed we ought to buy all these things, and then Nanon, the exciseman's daughter, would not give herself such airs at mass when she struts before our bench with her gingham frock and her coiffe à papillon. We should have new clothes like her, instead of being obliged to mend our Sunday clothes every Saturday.'

"Agathe colored deeply, and with much confusion of manner rebuked the little girl's loquacity; but almost instantly overcoming the natural weakness of her pride, she put aside the glistening silks with one hand, and with the other she laid her light purse on the table, saying in a tone of

"Yes, ere long; and really,' she continued in the same sad and resigned tone, 'I have no need of such things as you have shown me. Oblige me by letting me see the plainest goods you have.'

"The merchant went to a bale at the end of the room to comply with her wishes, and while he was unpacking it, Agathe amused herself with looking over the goods strewed before her. Among them lay a portfolio of tolerably good engravings, which she began to examine with some curiosity. Most of them represented polite pastoral scenes, in which plump cupids and enamored deities sported with dainty shepherdesses and innocent swains bedizened with pink ribands; but among these idylic compositions there was one that made a deep impression on Mademoiselle de Colobrières. The artist, seized with a tragic inspiration, had depicted a scene of monastic life in all its horrors. In a damp vault, scarcely lighted by an expiring lamp, a nun lay stretched on her bed of straw. She was dying immured in the in pace, and her wasted hands and dim eyes were raised to heaven with an indescribable expression. Like the prophet king she seemed crying out from those depths in a hopeless appeal to the divine mercy.

"Agathe gazed in dismay on this dismal image. All the latent repugnance of her soul for the monastic life, all her loathing for the vows she was about to pronounce, were suddenly and violently aroused; she let the engraving fall on her lap and burst into tears. Just at that moment the merchant came back from the other end of the room. A glance at the engraving explained to him the cause of this outbreak of grief, and he said with evident emotion, 'You are going into a convent, mademoiselle? It is a terrible step, if you are not led to it by a strong vocation. Pardon me if I venture to offer an opinion on what concerns you, but I cannot help thinking you will commit a crime against yourself in thus entering the grave alive. The time will come, perhaps, when you will bitterly regret such a step.'

"Regret it! I do so already!' cried Mademoiselle de Colobrières, whose long pent feelings now broke forth uncontrollably; I loathe a convent life, and look forward with dread to the future; but I must submit to my fate.'

"You have a father or a mother who insists on this sacrifice?'

"No, my parents are dead.'

"Indeed? Then who constrains you?' "Necessity,' replied Agathe bitterly. 'A nunnery is the only asylum on earth for a poor maiden of noble blood, and in such an asylum most of the females of our family have been immured in

you, and become a petite bourgeoise. You have no other refuge than the convent, because you are too poor to marry a man of your own quality; but a roturier would think himself fortunate to wed you without a dower.'

"A man of no birth would never dare to ask me in marriage,' replied Agathe, naïvely.

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the prime of life. It has long been the custom of the Colobrières to sacrifice us thus, since their fortune has ceased to be adequate to the maintenance of their rank. Oh, why does not God, to whom we are devoted in spite of ourselves, why does he not take us from the cradle, when our innocent hearts are as yet bound by no ties to this world?' "Whilst Agathe spoke thus, looking up to 'The situation in which you are placed may heaven with her beautiful eyes filled with tears, prompt some one to make so bold,' said the merthe merchant gazed on her with a singular expres-chant in a tone of peculiar meaning, and looking sion of countenance. The man was really superior her steadily in the face. to his vulgar condition; his was one of those prompt and decisive natures, which by dint of resolute will and daring shrewdness, carry themselves triumphantly through the most difficult circumstances. Such were the qualities to which Pierre Maragnon already owed a fortune acquired in hazardous speculations. As he gazed on the beautiful and high-born lady who now bent her tearful eyes to the ground, and seemed abashed at having suffered a stranger to be the witness of her unguarded emotion and the confidant of her secret sorrows, Pierre Maragnon felt the moment might be decisive of the future destiny of them both. A thought, extravagant almost to wildness, flashed upon his mind. With the same quick tact that he exercised in all his dealings, he calculated the chances of the matter before him; they appeared favorable, and he dared to conceive a hope, a project; viz., that he would carry off Mademoiselle de Colobrières, and marry her, he Pierre Maragnon! To any one who could have seen into the mind of Agathe at that moment, such an idea would have seemed the height of presumption and folly. The poor young lady did not even take any notice of him who was gazing with such deep scrutiny upon her beautiful downcast countenance. In the eyes of the indigent daughter of the barons of Colobrières, a merchant, a roturier, was not a man; and the good will with which she deigned to regard Pierre Maragnon was of a kind, perhaps, more mortifying to its object than would have been mere "The little girl had fallen asleep on the lap of indifference. The first necessary step was to her young aunt. All was hushed in the old mabring down that instinctive pride of hers, and an- nor. The castellan of Colobrières, far from susnihilate her inveterate prejudice by a direct and un-pecting the affront with which he was threatened, disguised attack; and this Pierre Maragnon resolved to do, at the risk of incurring the displeasure of Agathe upon the first word he uttered.

"You will think me very forward, mademoiselle,' he said, in a grave, respectful tone; but as I have spoken my mind as to your situation, I think it my duty also to give you this advice. Make up your mind to endure anything rather than enter a convent. You cannot remain with your family; they are too poor to keep you; well, then, leave them and go live elsewhere. Work, if it be necessary; it is neither a disgrace, nor even a misfortune. Is not constant toil, with freedom, better than a life of sloth, cloistered within four walls, whence you can never come out, alive or dead?'

"That is true,' replied Mademoiselle de Colobrières, surprised, but not offended at such language. If I could only renounce my nobility and my name, my course would be taken to-morrowat once. I would go and live no matter where, by the labor of my hands, rather than become a nun?"

"And what prevents you, mademoiselle?' said Pierre Maragnon, boldly. It needs only a slight effort of courage, and you may descend from that rank which imposes so terrible a sacrifice upon VOL. X. 29

CXXI.

LIVING AGE.

"She understood him. The blood rushed into her cheeks: her eyes flashed with pride, perhaps with indignation; but this involuntary movement of the blood subsided immediately; she made no answer, and remained thoughtful. Pierre Maranon deemed his triumph certain when he saw her ponder thus. Concealing his joy, and the very strong feeling that was already taking possession of his soul, he began again to descant on the fate of those who become nuns without any special vocation. Though his youth and his good looks might have inspired him with a certain degree of confidence, he had the good sense not to make trial of any vulgar means of seduction; he said not a word of what was passing in his heart, but keeping within due control the admiration, mingled with respect and tenderness, with which the beauty of Agathe had at once impressed him, he applied himself to discussing the possibility of a marriage between a wealthy roturier and the descendant of an illustrious and utterly ruined family. He set forth his own position in precise terms; it was prosperous. An orphan from his childhood, he owed to his own active exertions a fortune ten times the fee-simple value of the castle and estates of Colobrières. Agathe hearkened, confused, and tempted, not by her heart, but by her reason, which told her that after all it would be better to become the wife of a merchant, than to be shut up for the rest of her days in a nunnery.

was fast asleep beside his wife, and dreamed of finding under the head of his bed a fine bag of crowns, with which he had the castle repaired, and bought himself a new coat. Mademoiselle de Colobrières and Pierre Maragnon had full leisure to confer together, and when the clock struck midnight, their interview was not yet ended. Agathe nevertheless had not made up her mind. The longer she reflected, the more she felt the importance of the consent or refusal she was about to pronounce. Pale, oppressed, and trembling, she kept silence, or replied only in monosyllables mingled with sighs, to the pressing arguments with which Pierre Maragnon strove to fix her wavering purpose. But in the course of this long conference he had made immense progress. Mademoiselle de Colobrières was insensibly coming to treat him as an equal, and more than once she called him monsieur. At last, unable as yet to decide, she said:

"In the perturbation into which all this has thrown me, monsieur, I cannot come to any decision. I want to be alone, to collect my thoughts, and pray to God before I give you an answer. It is now late in the night, and you go away in the morning: well then, as soon as the first streak of dawn appears yonder, behind the hills, my resolu