WHITE LIES

By Charles Reade




CHAPTER I.


Towards the close of the last century the Baron de Beaurepaire lived
in the chateau of that name in Brittany. His family was of prodigious
antiquity; seven successive barons had already flourished on this spot
when a younger son of the house accompanied his neighbor the Duke of
Normandy in his descent on England, and was rewarded by a grant of
English land, on which he dug a mote and built a chateau, and called it
Beaurepaire (the worthy Saxons turned this into Borreper without delay).
Since that day more than twenty gentlemen of the same lineage had held
in turn the original chateau and lands, and handed them down to their
present lord.

Thus rooted in his native Brittany, Henri Lionel Marie St. Quentin de
Beaurepaire was as fortunate as any man can be pronounced before he
dies. He had health, rank, a good income, a fair domain, a goodly
house, a loving wife, and two lovely young daughters, all veneration and
affection. Two months every year he visited the Faubourg St. Germain and
the Court. At both every gentleman and every lacquey knew his name, and
his face: his return to Brittany after this short absence was celebrated
by a rustic fete.