them, and to solicit
their approval.

He considered himself fortunate in finding both Madame de Gramont and
Count Tristan at home. The former received him with as much cordiality
as her constitutional stiffness permitted, but the latter appeared to be
in a half-lethargic state; he scarcely rose to welcome his visitor,
spoke feebly and indistinctly, and, as he sank back in his seat, leaned
his flushed face upon his hands.

"My visit is somewhat early," remarked Lord Linden, "but I was impatient
to see you, for I came to speak of your niece, Mademoiselle de Gramont."

The count looked up eagerly.

Madame de Gramont replied before her son could speak, "The person whom
you designate as my niece has forfeited all right to that title, and is
not recognized by her family."

"I nevertheless venture to hope," returned the nobleman with marked
suavity, "that, under existing circumstances, the alienation will only
be temporary."

The countess broke out angrily: "The impertinence of this young person
exceeds all bounds! She gave us to understand that she possessed, at
least, the modesty to hide her real name, and had no desire to disgrace
her family by proclaiming that it was borne by a person in her degraded
condition; but this, it seems, is only another evidence of her duplicity
and covert manoeuvring; she has taken care that your lordship should
become acquainted with a relationship which we can never cease to
deplore."

"You do her wrong," replied Lord Linden, with becoming spirit; "I regret
to say she so scrupulously concealed her rank that I was led into a
great error,--one for which I now desire amply to atone. It was from M.
Maurice de Gramont that I learned the true name of the so-called
Mademoiselle Melanie."

"Maurice!" cried the countess and her son together.

"I received the information from him last evening," said Lord Linden,
"and I have now come to solicit the hand of Mademoiselle de Gramont in
marriage."

The suggestion that Madeleine could thus magically be raised out of her
present humiliating condition, and that all her short-comings might be
covered by the broad cloak of a title, took such delightful possession
of the haughty lady's mind that there was no room even for surprise.
While Count Tristan was vehemently shaking hands with Lord Linden, and
stammering out broken and unintelligible sentences, his mother said
gravely,--

"We consider your lordship, in all respects, an acceptable _parti_ for