"Heavens! what has age to do with it?" said Mademoiselle Herbelot.

"Provided one gets a husband," added Vinet, whose cold maliciousness
made him feared.

"Yes," replied the old maid, feeling the cut, "I should prefer a man
of fifty, indulgent, kind, and considerate, to a young man without a
heart, whose wit would bite every one, even his wife."

"This is all very well for conversation," retorted Vinet, "but in
order to love the man of fifty and reject the other, it is necessary
to have the opportunity to choose."

"Oh!" said Madame Mollot, in order to stop this passage at arms
between the old maid and Vinet, who always went to far, "when a woman
has had experience of life she knows that a husband of fifty or one of
twenty-five is absolutely the same thing if she merely respects him.
The important things in marriage are the benefits to be derived from
it. If Mademoiselle Beauvisage wants to go to Paris and shine there
--and in her place I should certainly feel so--she ought not to take a
husband in Arcis. If I had the fortune she will have, I should give my
hand to a count, to a man who would put me in a high social position,
and I shouldn't ask to see the certificate of his birth."

"It would satisfy you to see his toilet," whispered Vinet in her ear.

"But the king makes counts," said Madame Marion, who had now joined
the group and was surveying the bevy of young ladies.

"Ah! madame," remarked Vinet, "but some young girls prefer their