views of matrimony, all foreigners who united themselves with American
heiresses were not the entire brutes primitive prejudice might lead
one to imagine. There were rather one-sided alliances which proved
themselves far from happy. The Cousin Gaston, for instance, brought home
a bride whose fortune rebuilt and refurnished his dilapidated chateau
and who ended by making of him a well-behaved and cheery country
gentleman not at all to be despised in his amiable, if light-minded good
nature and good spirits. His wife, fortunately, was not a young woman
who yearned for sentiment. She was a nice-tempered, practical American
girl, who adored French country life and knew how to amuse and manage
her husband. It was a genial sort of menage and yet though this was an
undeniable fact, Bettina observed that when the union was spoken of it
was always referred to with a certain tone which conveyed that though
one did not exactly complain of its having been undesirable, it was
not quite what Gaston might have expected. His wife had money and was
good-natured, but there were limitations to one's appreciation of a
marriage in which husband and wife were not on the same plane.

"She is an excellent person, and it has been good for Gaston," said
Bettina's friend. "We like her, but she is not--she is not----" She
paused there, evidently seeing that the remark was unlucky. Bettina, who
was still in short frocks, took her up.

"What is she not?" she asked.

"Ah!--it is difficult to explain--to Americans. It is really not exactly
a fault. But she is not of his world."

"But if he does not like that," said Bettina coolly, "why did he let her
buy him and pay for him?"