whole of your inheritance in purchasing an estate for him to go with
the title."

"But," I said, "you won't interfere with my living in my own fashion
and enjoying life if I leave you my fortune?"

"Provided," he replied, "that your view of life does not conflict with
the family honor, reputation, and, I may add, glory."

"Come, come," I cried, "what has become of my excellent judgment?"

"There is not in all France," he said with bitterness, "a man who
would take for wife a daughter of one of our noblest families without
a dowry and bestow one on her. If such a husband could be found, it
would be among the class of rich _parvenus_; on this point I belong to
the eleventh century."

"And I also," I said. "But why despair? Are there no aged peers?"

"You are an apt scholar, Louise!" he exclaimed.

Then he left me, smiling and kissing my hand.

I received your letter this very morning, and it led me to contemplate
that abyss into which you say that I may fall. A voice within seemed
to utter the same warning. So I took my precautions. Henarez, my dear,
dares to look at me, and his eyes are disquieting. They inspire me
with what I can only call an unreasoning dread. Such a man ought no
more to be looked at than a frog; he is ugly and fascinating.