"No; there are other ways in which a Rochebriant can serve a throne.
There will be an office at Court vacant soon, which would not misbecome
your birth."

"Pardon me; a soldier serves his country--a courtier owns a master; and I
cannot take the livery of the Emperor, though I could wear the uniform of
France."

"Your distinction is childish, my kinsman," said the Duchesse,
impetuously. "You talk as if the Emperor had an interest apart from the
nation. I tell you that he has not a corner of his heart--not even one
reserved for his son and his dynasty--in which the thought of France does
not predominate."

"I do not presume, Madame la Duchesse, to question the truth of what you
say; but I have no reason to suppose that the same thought does not
predominate in the heart of the Bourbon. The Bourbon would be the first
to say to me: 'If France needs your sword against her foes, let it not
rest in the scabbard.' But would the Bourbon say, 'The place of a
Rochebriant is among the _valetaille_ of the Corsican's successor'?"

"Alas for poor France!" said the Duchesse; "and alas for men like you, my
proud cousin, if the Corsican's successors or successor be--"

"Henry V." interrupted Alain, with a brightening eye. "Dreamer! No;
some descendant of the mob-kings who gave Bourbons and nobles to the
guillotine."

While the Duchesse and Alain were thus conversing, Isaura had seated
herself by Valerie, and, unconscious of the offence she had given,