om the passion of love could gain a
foothold? The man who, on some glorious day, will render me happy is
my Armand, my Rene, my Nais, three angels for whom I have hitherto
lived--there can never be for me, I feel it deeply, another passion!

V. THE COMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE TO MADAME OCTAVE DE CAMPS

Paris, March, 1839.

About the year 1820 in the course of the same week two _news_ (to use
the schoolboy phrase of my son Armand) entered the college of Tours. One
had a charming face, the other would have been thought ugly if health,
frankness, and intelligence beaming on his features had not compensated
for their irregularity and inelegance.

Here you will stop me, and ask whether I have come to the end of my own
adventure, that I should now be writing this feuilleton-story. No, this
tale is really a continuation of that adventure, though it seems little
like it; so, give it your best attention and do not interrupt me again.

One of these lads, the handsome one, was dreamy, contemplative, and a
trifle _elegaic_; the other, ardent, impetuous, and always in action.
They were two natures which completed each other; a priceless blessing
to every friendship that is destined to last. Both had the same
bar-sinister on them at their birth. The dreamer was the natural son of
the unfortunate Lady Brandon. His name was Marie-Gaston; which, indeed,
seems hardly an actual name. The other, born of wholly unknown parents,
was named Dorlange, which is certainly no name at all. Dorlange, Valmon,
Volmar, Melcourt, are heard upon the stage and nowhere else; already
they belong to a past style, and will soon rejoin Alceste, Arnolphe,
Clitandre, Damis, Eraste, Philinte, and Arsinoe.

Another reason why the poor ill-born lads should cling together was
the cruel abandonment to which they were consigned. For the seven years
their studies lasted there was not a day, even during the holidays, when
the door of their prison opened. Now and then Marie-Gaston received
a visit from an old woman who had served his mother; through her the
quarterly payment for his schooling was regularly made. That of Dorlange
was also made with great punctuality through a banker in Tours. A point
to be remarked is that the price paid for the schooling of the latter
was the highest which the rules of the establishment allowed; hence the
conclusion that his unknown parents were persons in easy circumstances.
Among his comrades, Dorlange attained to a certain respe