or a girl of his own caste. In matters of sentiment the elder
d'Hauteserre belonged to the class of men who consider woman as
an appendage to man, limiting her sphere to the physical duties of
maternity; demanding perfection in that respect, but regarding her
mentally as of no account. To such men the admittance of woman as an
actual sharer in society, in the body politic, in the family, meant the
subversion of the social system. In these days we are so far removed
from this theory of primitive people that almost all women, even those
who do not desire the fatal emancipation offered by the new sects, will
be shocked in merely hearing of it; but it must be owned that Robert
d'Hauteserre had the misfortune to think in that way. Robert was a man
of the middle-ages, Adrien a man of to-day. These differences instead of
hindering their affection had drawn its bonds the closer. On the first
evening after the return of the young men these shades of character
were caught and understood by the abbe, Mademoiselle Goujet, and Madame
d'Hauteserre, who, while playing their boston, were secretly foreseeing
the difficulties of the future.

At twenty-three years of age, having passed through the many reflections
of a long solitude and the anguish of a defeated enterprise, Laurence
had become a woman, and felt within her an absorbing desire for
affection. She now put forth all her graces of her mind and was
charming; she revealed the hidden beauties of her tender heart with the
simple candor of a child. For the last thirteen years she had been a
woman only through suffering; she longed to obtain amends for it, and
she showed herself as loving and winning as she had been, up to this
time, strong and great.

The four elders, who were the last to leave the salon that night,
admitted to each other that they felt uneasy at the new position of this
charming girl. What power might not passion have on a young woman of
her character and with her nobility of soul? The twin brothers loved her
with one and the same love and a blind devotion; which of the two would
Laurence choose? To choose one was to kill the other. Countess in her
own right, she could bring her husband a title and certain prerogatives,
together with a long lineage. Perhaps in thinking of these advantages
the elder of the twins, the Marquis de Simeuse, would sacrifice himself
to give Laurence to his brother, who, according to the old laws, was
poor and without a title. But would t