an animal, either rude or reserved; but your ideal of the marquis of the
old regime, the roue of the Regency.

Italian, however, he was, and of a race renowned in Italian history.
But, as if ashamed of his country and his birth, he affected to be a
citizen of the world. Heaven help the world if it hold only such
citizens!

"But, Giulio," said Beatrice di Negra, speaking in Italian, "even
granting that you discover this girl, can you suppose that her father
will ever consent to your alliance? Surely you know too well the nature
of your kinsman?"

"Tu to trompes, ma soeur," replied Giulio Franzini, Count di Peschiera,
in French as usual,--"tu to trompes; I knew it before he had gone through
exile and penury. How can I know it now? But comfort yourself, my too
anxious Beatrice, I shall not care for his consent, till I 've made sure
of his daughter's."

"But how win that in despite of the father?"

"Eh, mordieu!" interrupted the count, with true French gayety; "what
would become of all the comedies ever written, if marriages were not made
in despite of the father? Look you," he resumed, with a very slight
compression of his lip, and a still slighter movement in his chair,--
"look you, this is no question of ifs and buts! it is a question of must
and shall,--a question of existence to you and to me. When Danton was
condemned to the guillotine, he said, flinging a pellet of bread at the
nose of his respectable judge, 'Mon individu sera bientot dans le neant.'
My patrimony is there already! I am loaded with debts. I see before me,