between the royalists who were faithful to their principles, and
their conquerors. The happiness of his grand-daughter seemed to him so
doubtful if he delivered her into the hands of the proud and haughty
Marquise de Cinq-Cygne that he decided in his own mind to trust to the
friend of old age, Time. He hoped that his bitter enemy the marquise
might die, and, in that case, he thought he could win the son through
his grandfather, old d'Hauteserre, who was then living at Cinq-Cygne and
whom he knew to be accessible to the persuasions of money.

If this plan failed, and Cecile Beauvisage remained unmarried, he
resolved as a last resort to consult his friend Gondreville, who
would, he believed, find his Cecile a husband, after his heart and his
ambition, among the dukes of the Empire.

IX. A STRANGER

Severine found her father seated on a wooden bench at the end of his
terrace, under a bower of lilacs then in bloom, and taking his coffee;
for it was half-past five in the afternoon. She saw, by the pain on
her father's face, that he had already heard the news. In fact, the old
count had sent a valet to his friend, begging him to come to him.

Up to the present time, old Grevin had endeavored not to encourage his
daughter's ambition too far; but now, in the midst of the contradictory
reflections which the melancholy death of Charles Keller caused him, his
secret escaped his lips.

"My dear child," he said to her, "I had formed the finest plans for your
future. Cecile was to have been Vicomtesse Keller, for Charles, by my
influence, would now have been selected deputy. Neither Gondreville nor
his daughter Madame Keller would have refused Cecile's _dot_ of sixty
thousand francs a year, especially with the prospect of a hundred
thousand more which she will some day have from you. You would have
lived in Paris with your daughter, and played your part of mother-in-law
in the upper regions of power."

Madame Beauvisage made a sign of satisfaction.

"But we are knocked down by the death of this charming young man, to
whom the prince royal had already given his friendship. Now this Simon
Giguet, who has thrust himself upon the scene, is a fool, and the worst
of all fools, for he thinks himself an eagle. You are, however, too
intimate with the Giguets and the Marion household not to put the utmost
politeness into your refusal--but you must refuse him."

"As usual, you and I are of the same opinion, father."

"You can s