if she thinks I am an
obstacle to her plans, she will never let me see Helene again."

"Where were you, then, when I called you, good-for-nothing?"

"I was on the stairs, talking to her. Her mother had sent her out of the
room--"

"On my word, you snatch your opportunities!"

"Of course! And when you were young--"

"There--no impertinence--"

"Dear uncle, I asked you days ago to talk to my father and mother. Why
did you never do it? Then I might have been beforehand with that man--as
to him, of course, he is an utter impossibility, and if Cousin Herve
sees that, we are safe--but still--"

"Ah! there is a 'but' in the affair, I assure you. Madame would do
anything for a nearer connection with her beloved Empire--and Ratoneau
might be Napoleon's twin-brother, but that is a detail--and not only
madame, your father is on the same side."

"My father!"

"He thinks there could not be a more sensible marriage. The daughter of
the Comte de Sainfoy--a distinguished general of division; diable! what
can anybody want more? So my Angelot, I was not a false prophet, it
seems to me, when I felt very sure that what you asked me was hopeless.
Your father would have been against you, for the sake of the Sainfoys;
your mother, for opposite reasons. There was one chance, Herve himself.
I saw that he was very angry at the Ratoneau proposal; I thought he
might snatch at an alternative. I still think he might have done so, if
you had not behaved like a maniac. It was the moment, Angelot; such
moments do not return. I was striking while the iron was hot--you, you
only, made my idea useless. You made me look even more mad and foolish
than yourself--not that I cared for that. As to danger from her mother,
why, after all, her father is the authority."

"Ah, but you are too romantic," sighed Angelot. "He would never have
accepted me. He would never really oppose his wife, if her mind was set
against him."

"He opposes her now. He plainly said that his daughter should marry a
gentleman, therefore not Ratoneau. And where have all your fine
presumptuous hopes flown to, my boy? The other day you found yourself
good enough for Mademoiselle Helene."

"Perhaps I do still," Angelot said, and laughed. "But I did not then
quite understand the Comtesse. I know now that she detests me. Then,
too, she had not seen or thought of Ratoneau--Dieu! What profanation!
Was it quite new, the terrible idea? I saw the brute--pah! We were
handing the coff