to add, that a week later Isabelle and de Sigognac
were united in marriage in the chapel at Vallombreuse, which was
brilliantly lighted, and filled with fragrance from the profusion of
flowers that converted it into a very bower. The music was heavenly, the
fair bride adorably beautiful, with her long white veil floating about
her, and the Baron de Sigognac radiant with happiness. The Marquis de
Bruyeres was one of his witnesses, and a most brilliant and aristocratic
assemblage "assisted" at this notable wedding in high life. No one, who
had not been previously informed of it, could ever have suspected
that the lovely bride--at once so noble and modest, so dignified and
graceful, so gentle and refined, yet with as lofty a bearing as a
princess of the blood royal--had only a short time before been one of a
band of strolling players, nightly fulfilling her duties as an actress.
While de Sigognac, governor of a province, captain of mousquetaires,
superbly dressed, dignified, stately and affable, the very beau-ideal
of a distinguished young nobleman, had nothing about him to recall
the poor, shabby, disconsolate youth, almost starving in his dreary,
half-ruined chateau, whose misery was described at the beginning of this
tale.

After a splendid collation, graced by the presence of the bride and
groom, the happy pair vanished; but we will not attempt to follow them,
or intrude upon their privacy--turning away at the very threshold of
the nuptial chamber, singing, in low tones, after the fashion of the
ancients, "Hymen! oh Hymen!"

The mysteries of such sacred happiness as theirs should be respected;
and besides, sweet, modest Isabelle would have died of shame if so much
as a single one of the pins that held her bodice were indiscreetly drawn
out.

CHAPTER XXII. THE CASTLE OF HAPPINESS

EPILOGUE

It will be readily believed that our sweet Isabelle had not forgotten,
in her exceeding happiness as Mme. la Baronne de Sigognac, her former
companions of Herode's troupe. As she could not invite them to her
wedding because they would have been so much out of place there--she
had, in commemoration of that auspicious occasion, sent handsome and
appropriate gifts to them all; offered with a grace so charming that
it redoubled their value. So long as the company remained in Paris, she
went often to see them play; applauding her old friends heartily, and
judiciously as well, knowing just where the applause should be given.
The