his bitter enemy the marquise might die, and, in that case, he thought
he could win the son through his grandfather, old d'Hauteserre, who was
then living at Cinq-Cygne and whom he knew to be accessible to the
persuasions of money.

If this plan failed, and Cecile Beauvisage remained unmarried, he
resolved as a last resort to consult his friend Gondreville, who
would, he believed, find his Cecile a husband, after his heart and his
ambition, among the dukes of the Empire.



IX

A STRANGER

Severine found her father seated on a wooden bench at the end of his
terrace, under a bower of lilacs then in bloom, and taking his coffee;
for it was half-past five in the afternoon. She saw, by the pain on
her father's face, that he had already heard the news. In fact, the
old count had sent a valet to his friend, begging him to come to him.

Up to the present time, old Grevin had endeavored not to encourage his
daughter's ambition too far; but now, in the midst of the
contradictory reflections which the melancholy death of Charles Keller
caused him, his secret escaped his lips.

"My dear child," he said to her, "I had formed the finest plans for
your future. Cecile was to have been Vicomtesse Keller, for Charles,
by my influence, would now have been selected deputy. Neither