was solid, for I had been fed on food easy of digestion. The little I
knew served to show me, therefore, that others either knew nothing at
all, or were giving themselves the lie.

At the commencement of our stay in Paris the chevalier had but few
visitors. The friend and contemporary of Turgot and several other
distinguished men, he had not mixed with the gilded youth of his day,
but had lived soberly in the country after loyally serving in the wars.
His circle of friends, therefore, was composed of a few grave gentlemen
of the long robe, several old soldiers, and a few nobles from his own
province, both old and young, who, thanks to a respectable fortune,
were able, like himself, to come and spend the winter in Paris. He had,
moreover, kept up a slight intercourse with a more brilliant set, among
whom Edmee's beauty and refined manners were noticed as soon as she
appeared. Being an only daughter, and passably rich, she was sought
after by various important matrons, those procuresses of quality who
have always a few young proteges whom they wish to clear from debt at
the expense of some family in the provinces. And then, when it became
known that she was engaged to M. de la Marche, the almost ruined scion
of a very illustrious family, she was still more kindly received, until
by degrees the little salon which she had chosen for her father's old
friends became too small for the wits by quality and profession, and
the grand ladies with a turn for philosophy who wished to know the young
Quakeress, the Rose of Berry (such were the names given her by a certain
fashionable woman).

This rapid success in a world in which she had hitherto been unknown by
no mean dazzled Edmee; and the control which she possessed over herself
was so great that, in spite of all the anxiety with which I watched
her slightest movement, I could never discover if she felt flattered at