ngueville, who nodded
slightly to her partner.

"Is that young man a friend of yours?" she asked, with a scornful air.

"Only my brother," he replied.

Emilie could not help starting. "Ah!" he continued, "and he is the
noblest soul living----"

"Do you know my name?" asked Emilie, eagerly interrupting him.

"No, mademoiselle. It is a crime, I confess, not to remember a name
which is on every lip--I ought to say in every heart. But I have a valid
excuse. I have but just arrived from Germany. My ambassador, who is in
Paris on leave, sent me here this evening to take care of his amiable
wife, whom you may see yonder in that corner."

"A perfect tragic mask!" said Emilie, after looking at the ambassadress.

"And yet that is her ballroom face!" said the young man, laughing.
"I shall have to dance with her! So I thought I might have some
compensation." Mademoiselle de Fontaine courtesied. "I was very much
surprised," the voluble young secretary went on, "to find my brother
here. On arriving from Vienna I heard that the poor boy was ill in bed;
and I counted on seeing him before coming to this ball; but good policy
will always allow us to indulge family affection. The Padrona della case
would not give me time to call on my poor Maximilien."

"Then, monsieur, your brother is not, like you, in diplomatic
employment."

"No," said the attache, with a sigh, "the poor fellow sacrificed himself
for me. He and my sister Clara have renounced their share of my father's
fortune to make an eldest son of me. My father dreams of a peerage, like
all who vote for the ministry. Indeed, it is promised him," he added
in an undertone. "After saving up a little capital my brother joined a
banking firm, and I hear he has just effected a speculation in Brazil
which may make him a millionaire. You see me in the highest spirits at
having been able, by my diplomatic connections, to contribute to his
success. I am impatiently expecting a dispatch from the Brazilian
Legation, which will help to lift the cloud from his brow. What do you
think of him?"

"Well, your brother's face does not look to me like that of a man busied
with money matters."

The young attache shot a scrutinizing glance at the apparently calm face
of his partner.

"What!" he exclaimed, with a smile, "can young ladies read the thoughts
of love behind the silent brow?"

"Your brother is in love, then?" she asked, betrayed into a movement of
curiosity.

"Yes; my sister