carried her rich jewels and trappings, and her personal magnetism, and
sat down for the season to a campaign of social stratagem and
sentimental intrigue--to the indulgence of her unbridled appetite for
excitement and the admiration of men. And ever at the end, when it was
time to move on to another BIJOU apartment in another place, there was
a fresh scalp at her girdle, and nothing, as it were, to show for it,
until at last her vanity was tempted with a title, and she married an
Italian count, who, if all tales were true, paid the debt that his sex
owed her with heavy interest. But those tales did not reach the
ears of the sisters at home. To them--with the object of suitably
impressing them--she wrote an occasional note, of which half the words
were titles of nobility; and the humbler relatives accepted the fact of
her unapproachable elevation above them. The Breens made easy jokes
upon the subject; Mr Goldsworthy's jealousy of her was overcome by his
pride in the connection. "We had a letter from my sister-in-law, the
Countess, the other day," he would amiably remark, and proceed to
repeat and amplify the fashionable intelligence contained therein,
instead of taking away her character as he had been used to do. Deborah
was the only sister with whom she can be said to have corresponded, and
Deborah had a shrewd suspicion that all was not gold that glittered in
Francie's lot. Deborah had the best means of knowing, being herself a
world-traveller, and what is called a society woman, as well known in
the resorts of such as Frances herself. But although they seemed to run
so closely, and so much upon the same lines, there was as wide a gap of
social difference and non-intimacy between them as between any two of
their family. And Deb was not one to think evil of her own flesh and
blood, if it was possible to think good.

She, too, might have filled her letters to Australia with titles of
nobility--nobility of a firmer standing than the Countess and her