nciples? Can you not conceive, for instance, some
circumstance in which you might love a woman enough to commit a crime?"

"No," said Lucan; "do you?"

"I!--I deserve no credit. I have no passions. It is extremely mortifying,
but I have none. I was born to be an exemplary man. You remember my
childhood; I was a little model. Now I am a big model, that's all the
difference--and it does not cost me any effort whatever. Shall we go and
see Clotilde?"

"Let us go!"

And they went to Clotilde's, very worthy herself of the friendship of
these two excellent fellows.

There they were received with marked consideration, even by Mademoiselle
Julia, who seemed to feel, to a certain degree, the prestige of these
superior natures. Both had, moreover, in their manners and language an
elegant correctness that apparently satisfied the child's delicate taste
and her artistic instincts.

During the early period of her mourning, Julia's disposition had assumed a
somewhat shy and somber cast; when her mother received visitors, she left
the parlor abruptly, and went to lock herself up in her own room, not,
however, without manifesting toward the indiscreet guests a haughty
displeasure. Cousin Pierre and his friend had alone the privilege of a
kindly greeting; she even deigned to leave her apartment and come and join
them at her mother's side when she knew that they were there.

Clotilde had therefore good reasons to believe that her preference for
Monsieur de Lucan would obtain her daughter's approbation; she
unfortunately had better ones still to doubt that Monsieur de Lucan's
disposition corresponded with her own. Not only, indeed, had he always
maintained toward her the terms of the most reserved friendship, but,
since she had been a widow, that reserve had become perceptibly
aggravated. Lucan's visits became fewer and briefer; he even seemed to
take particular care in avoiding all occasions of finding himself alone
with Clotilde, as if he had penetrated her secret feelings, and had
affected to discourage them. Such were the sadly significant symptoms
which Clotilde had communicated in confidence to her mother.

On the very day when the baroness was receiving this unpleasant
information at the residence of her daughter, a conversation was taking
place upon the same subject between the Count de Moras and George de
Lucan, in the latter's apartment. They had taken together, during the
forenoon a ride through the Bois, and Lucan had