and without reserve he communicated his wishes to his father, begged
of him to choose him a wife, and promised to take readily and
cheerfully as such her whom his father or his sponsor, his second
mother, would select for him.

A few months later reached Martinique the letters which, as already
said, were to be of the utmost importance to the family of M.
Tascher de la Pagerie.

The first of these letters was from the Marquis de Beauharnais, and
addressed to the parents of Josephine, but with a considerate and
delicate tact the marquis had not written the letter with his own
hand, but had dictated it to his son Alexander, so as to prove to
the family of his friend De la Pagerie that the son was in perfect
unison of sentiment with the father, and that the latter only
expressed what the son desired and approved.

"I cannot express," wrote the marquis, "how much satisfaction I have
in being at this moment able to give you a proof of the inclination
and friendship which I always have had for you. As you will
perceive, this satisfaction is not merely on the surface.

"My two sons," continues he, "are now enjoying an annual income of
forty thousand livres. It is in your power to give me your daughter
to enjoy this income with my son, the chevalier. The esteem and
affection he feels for Madame de Renaudin makes him passionately
desire to be united with her niece. I can assure you that I am only
gratifying his wishes when I pray you to give me for him your second
daughter, whose age corresponds at best with his. I sincerely wish
that your eldest daughter were a few years younger, for then she