inclination and the friendship which have already so long chained us
together. I trust that Mademoiselle de la Pagerie will not refuse
her consent. Allow me to embrace her and already to greet her as my
own beloved daughter." [Footnote: Aubenas, "Histoire de
l'Imperatrice Josephine," vol. i., p. 78.]

To this letter was addressed a note from Madame de Renaudin to her
brother and to her sister-in-law. She openly acknowledges that she
it was who desired this union, and who had brought the matter to its
present stage, and she endeavors to meet the objection that it would
appear strange for a young lady to undertake a long journey in
search of a future husband, whilst it would be more expedient that
the bridegroom should make the journey to his bride, to receive her
at the hands of her parents, and bring her with him to a new home.
But this bride of thirteen years must first be trained for her
future destiny; she is not to be in the house of her future father-
in-law, but in the house of Madame de Renaudin, her aunt, and she is
there to receive the completion of her education and that higher
culture which her parents, even with all the necessary means, could
not give her in Martinique.

"We are of opinion," she writes, "that the young people must see one
another and please each other, before we bring this matter to a
close, for they are both too dear to us to desire to coerce them
against their inclination. Your daughter will find in me a true and
kind mother, and I am sure that she will find the happiness of her
future life in the contemplated union, for the chevalier is well
qualified to make a wife happy. All that I can say of him exhausts
by no means the praise he deserves. He has a pleasant countenance,
an excellent figure, wit, genius, knowledge, and, what is more than