made me a much-caressed individual in that new social
order just then springing up, called the "financiere" class, one which,
if with few claims to the stately manners of the "Faubourg," numbered as
many pretty women and as agreeable ones as could be found anywhere.
Had I been matrimonially disposed, this set would certainly have been
dangerous ground for me,--the attentions which beset me being almost
like adulation. The truth was, however, Donna Maria had left an
impression which comparison with others did not efface. I felt, if I
were to marry, it might as well be for high rank and family influence,
since I never could do so for love. My nobility required a little
strengthening, nor was there any easier or more efficient mode of
supporting it than by an alliance with some of those antiquated houses
who, with small fortunes but undiminished pride, inhabited the solitudes
of the "Faubourg St. Germain." I cannot afford space here to recount
my adventures in that peaceful and deserted quarter, whose amusements
ranged between masses and tric-trac,--where Piety and Pope Joan divided
the hours. The antiquity of my family and the pureness of my Castilian
blood! had been the pretensions which obtained admission for me into
these sacred precincts; and there, I must say, everything seemed old and
worn out: the houses, the salons, the furniture, the masters, servants,
horses, carriages,--all were as old as the formalities and the opinions
they professed.

Even the young ladies had got a premature cast of seriousness that took
away every semblance of juvenility. Whether from associating with them,
or that I had voluntarily conformed to the staid Puritanism of their
manners, I cannot say, but my other acquaintances began to quiz and
rally me about my "Legitimist" air, and even said that the change had
been remarked at Court.

This was an observation that gave me some uneasiness, and I hastened off
to the Duc de St. Cloud, whose kindness had always admitted me to the
most open intercourse.

"It is quite true, Creganne," said he, "we all remarked that you
were coquetting with the 'vieux,'--the old ones of the Faubourg; and
although _I_ had never any misgivings about you, _others_ were less
charitable."

"What is to be done, then?" said I, in my distress at the bare thought
of seeming ungrateful.

"I'll tell you," said he: "there's the post of secretary of embassy
just vacant at Madrid; your knowledge of the language, and your