ed through
her mind as she watched him come and go. But under the circumstances in
which she now found herself, she saw plainly that the courtship of
the Duc d'Herouville would save her from being at the mercy of either
Canalis.

"I see no reason," she said to Latournelle, "why the Duc d'Herouville
should not be received. I have passed, in spite of our indigence," she
continued, with a mischievous look at her father, "to the condition
of heiress. Haven't you observed Gobenheim's glances? They have quite
changed their character within a week. He is in despair at not being
able to make his games of whist count for mute adoration of my charms."

"Hush, my darling!" cried Madame Latournelle, "here he comes."

"Old Althor is in despair," said Gobenheim to Monsieur Mignon as he
entered.

"Why?" asked the count.

"Vilquin is going to fail; and the Bourse thinks you are worth several
millions. What ill-luck for his son!"

"No one knows," said Charles Mignon, coldly, "what my liabilities in
India are; and I do not intend to take the public into my confidence as
to my private affairs. Dumay," he whispered to his friend, "if Vilquin
is embarrassed we could get back the villa by paying him what he gave
for it."

Such was the general state of things, due chiefly to accident, when on
Sunday morning Canalis and La Briere arrived, with a courier in advance,
at the villa of Madame Amaury. It was known that the Duc d'Herouville,
his sister, and his aunt were coming the following Tuesday to occupy,
also under pretext of ill-health, a hired house at Graville. This
assemblage of suitors made the wits of the Bourse remark that, thanks to
Mademoiselle Mignon, rents would rise at Ingouville. "If this goes on,
she will have a hospital here," said the younger Mademoiselle Vilquin,
vexed at not becoming a duchess.

The everlasting comedy of "The Heiress," about to be played at the
Chalet, might very well be called, in view of Modeste's frame of mind,
"The Designs of a Young Girl"; for since the overthrow of her illusions
she had fully made up her mind to give her hand to no man whose
qualifications did not fully satisfy her.

The two rivals, still intimate friends, intended to pay their first
visit at the Chalet on the evening of the day succeeding their arrival.
They had spent Sunday and part of Monday in unpacking and arranging
Madame Amaury's house for a month's stay. The poet, always calculating
effects, wished to make the most of