hat resource, Monsieur de Moras contented himself with kissing the
beautiful hands of his cousin, and was otherwise generally wanting in
eloquence; but his handsome and manly features were resplendent, and his
large blue eyes were moist with gratified affection. He appeared to leave
a favorable impression.

"I had never considered him in that light," said Julia to her mother; "he
is very handsome--he will make a splendid-looking husband."

The marriage took place three months later, privately and without any
display. The Count de Moras and his youthful bride left for Italy the same
evening.

Monsieur de Lucan had left Paris two or three weeks before, and had taken
up his quarters in an old family residence at the very extremity of
Normandy, where Clotilde hastened to join him immediately after Julia's
departure.

CHAPTER IV.

A GREWSOME ABODE.

Vastville, the patrimonial domain of the Lucan family, is situated a short
distance from the sea, on the west coast of the Norman Finisterre. It is a
manor with high roof and wrought-iron balconies, which dates from the time
of Louis XIII., and which has taken the place of the old castle, a few
ruins of which still serve to ornament the park. It is concealed in a
thickly shaded depression of the soil, and a long avenue of antique elms
precedes it. The aspect of it is singularly retired and melancholy, owing
to the dense woods that surround it on all sides. This wooded thicket
marks, on this point of the peninsula, the last effort of the vigorous
vegetation of Normandy. As soon as its edge has been crossed, the view
extends suddenly and without obstacle over the vast moors which form the
triangular plateau of the Cape La Hague; fields of furze and heather,
stone fences without cement, here and there a cross of granite, on the
right and on the left the distant undulations of the ocean--such is the
severe but grand landscape that is suddenly unfolded to the eyes beneath
the unobstructed light of the heavens.

Monsieur de Lucan was born in Vastville. The poetic reminiscences of
childhood mingled in his imagination with the natural poetry of that site,
and made it dear to him. Under pretext of hunting, he came on a pilgrimage
to it every year. Since his marriage only, he had given up that habit of
the heart, in order not to leave Clotilde, who was detained in Paris by
her daughter; but it had been agreed upon that they would go and bury
themselves in that retreat for a