with you stay-at-home folks.
Look at his cousin Henri!"

"Henri is two years older."

"Ay, he has the advantage there, but Albert's as well grown, and
better. Henri is a young scamp, too, I admit, but he is making a name
already. He is hand in glove with De Retz."

"Albert belongs to the elder branch of the family," said my mother
stiffly, and the soldier was going to make answer but thought better of
it.

"It is kind of you to show such interest in the lad," remarked my
father presently, "and we will consider the matter."

"As you please, old friend. Follow your own judgment, but should he
take it into his head to wear the green scarf, let him inquire at the
Palais Royal for Roland Belloc."

That night, after our guest rode away, I lay awake a long time thinking
over his words. The prospect held out by him seemed to be an answer to
my dreams. For many years now the fortunes of the elder branch of the
De Lalande family had sunk lower and lower. My grandfather had been
stripped of vast estates because he would not change his opinions to
suit the times, and my father had been, as most folks thought it,
equally foolish.

Unhappily, he never by any chance espoused the winning side. His house
was a "Camp of Refuge" for broken men of every party, who never sued
for relief in vain. The poor and infirm, the blind, the halt, and the
maimed, for twenty miles around, were his family, and he never wearied
of giving, till, of all our original possessions, one poor farm and
homestead alone remained.

The splendid mansion of Vancey, which my grandfather had owned, now
belonged to Baron Maubranne, and was often filled with a glittering
throng from Paris. Occasionally my cousin Henri made one of the party,
and I could not help reflecting somewhat bitterly on the difference
between us.

He was two years my senior, though I was as tall as he, and more than
his equal in strength. But he was handsomely dressed and in the newest
fashion, while I went about in a dingy suit that was not far from
threadbare. I never envied Henri, mind you, or thought the worse of
him, because his father had prospered in the world, but it was seeing
him, that, in the first place, led me to build my castles in the air.

My one idea in those days was to obtain possession of Vancey, where the
De Lalandes had lived and died for centuries. How it was to be done I
had not the least notion, and I never spoke of it to others; but
Roland's talk