"What will become of him, for he is condemned to death?" I asked.

"Though dead to Spain, he can live in Sardinia."

"Ah! then Spain is the country of tombs as well as castles?" I said,
trying to carry it off as a joke.

"There is everything in Spain, even Spaniards of the old school," my
mother replied.

"The Baron de Macumer obtained a passport, not without difficulty,
from the King of Sardinia," the young diplomatist went on. "He has now
become a Sardinian subject, and he possesses a magnificent estate in
the island with full feudal rights. He has a palace at Sassari. If
Ferdinand VII. were to die, Macumer would probably go in for
diplomacy, and the Court of Turin would make him ambassador. Though
young, he is--"

"Ah! he is young?"

"Certainly, mademoiselle . . . though young, he is one of the most
distinguished men in Spain."

I scanned the house meanwhile through my opera-glass, and seemed to
lend an inattentive ear to the secretary; but, between ourselves, I
was wretched at having burnt his letter. In what terms would a man
like that express his love? For he does love me. To be loved, adored
in secret; to know that in this house, where all the great men of
Paris were collected, there was one entirely devoted to me, unknown to
everybody! Ah! Renee, now I understand the life of Paris, its balls,