, my dear father. You have had your room set in order to
receive your beloved daughter. You did not perhaps know that you would
find her so foolish and so headstrong. But, papa, is it so difficult
to get married to a peer of France? You declared that they were
manufactured by dozens. At least, you will not refuse to advise me."

"No, my poor child, no;--and more than once I may have occasion to cry,
'Beware!' Remember that the making of peers is so recent a force in our
government machinery that they have no great fortunes. Those who are
rich look to becoming richer. The wealthiest member of our peerage has
not half the income of the least rich lord in the English Upper Chamber.
Thus all the French peers are on the lookout for great heiresses for
their sons, wherever they may meet with them. The necessity in which
they find themselves of marrying for money will certainly exist for at
least two centuries.

"Pending such a fortunate accident as you long for--and this
fastidiousness may cost you the best years of your life--your
attractions might work a miracle, for men often marry for love in these
days. When experience lurks behind so sweet a face as yours it
may achieve wonders. In the first place, have you not the gift of
recognizing virtue in the greater or smaller dimensions of a man's body?
This is no small matter! To so wise a young person as you are, I need
not enlarge on all the difficulties of the enterprise. I am sure that
you would never attribute good sense to a stranger because he had a
handsome face, or all the virtues because he had a fine figure. And I am
quite of your mind in thinking that the sons of peers ought to have an
air peculiar to themselves, and perfectly distinctive manners. Though
nowadays no external sign stamps a man of rank, those young men will
have, perhaps, to you the indefinable something that will reveal it.
Then, again, you have your heart well in hand, like a good horseman who
is sure his steed cannot bolt. Luck be with you, my dear!"

"You are making game of me, papa. Well, I assure you that I would rather
die in Mademoiselle de Conde's convent than not be the wife of a peer of
France."

She slipped out of her father's arms, and proud of being her own
mistress, went off singing the air of Cara non dubitare, in the
"Matrimonio Segreto."

As it happened, the family were that day keeping the anniversary of
a family fete. At dessert Madame Planat, the Receiver-General's wife,
spo