in garrison towns. A
scheme for inveigling the gallant captain into matrimony was immediately
set on foot, one of those schemes by which mothers secure accomplices in
a human heart by touching all its motive springs, while they convert all
their friends into fellow-conspirators. Like all people possessed by
one idea, these ladies press everything into the service of their great
project, slowly elaborating their toils, much as the ant-lion excavates
its funnel in the sand and lies in wait at the bottom for its victim.
Suppose that no one strays, after all, into that carefully constructed
labyrinth? Suppose that the ant-lion dies of hunger and thirst in her
pit? Such things may be, but if any heedless creature once enters in, it
never comes out. All the wires which could be pulled to induce action
on the captain's part were tried; appeals were made to the secret
interested motives that always come into play in such cases; they worked
on Castanier's hopes and on the weaknesses and vanity of human nature.
Unluckily, he had praised the daughter to her mother when he brought her
back after a waltz, a little chat followed, and then an invitation in
the most natural way in the world. Once introduced into the house,
the dragoon was dazzled by the hospitality of a family who appeared
to conceal their real wealth beneath a show of careful economy. He was
skilfully flattered on all sides, and every one extolled for his benefit
the various treasures there displayed. A neatly timed dinner, served on
plate lent by an uncle, the attention shown to him by the only daughter
of the house, the gossip of the town, a well-to-do sub-lieutenant who
seemed likely to cut the ground from under his feet--all the innumerable
snares, in short, of the provincial ant-lion were set for him, and to
such good purpose, that Castanier said five years later, "To this day I
do not know how it came about!"

The dragoon received fifteen thousand francs with the lady, who after
two years of marriage, became the ugliest and consequently the
most peevish woman on earth. Luckily they had no children. The fair
complexion (maintained by a Spartan regimen), the fresh, bright color
in her face, which spoke of an engaging modesty, became overspread with
blotches and pimples; her figure, which had seemed so straight, grew
crooked, the angel became a suspicious and shrewish creature who drove
Castanier frantic. Then the fortune took to itself wings. At length the
dragoon