days when
all that we Bretons deem holy in noblesse are subjected to ridicule and
contempt, should so vilely forget the only motto which the scutcheons
of all gentilhommes have in common, 'Noblesse oblige.' War, with all
its perils and all its grandeur,--war lifts on high the banners of
France,--war, in which every ancestor of mine whom I care to recall
aggrandised the name that descends to me. Let me then do as those before
me have done; let me prove that I am worth something in myself, and
then you and I are equals; and I can say with no humbled crest, 'Your
benefits are accepted:' the man who has fought not ignobly for France
may aspire to the hand of her daughter. Give me Valerie; as to her
dot,--be it so, Rochebriant,--it will pass to her children."

"Alain! Alain! my friend! my son!--but if you fall."

"Valerie will give you a nobler son."

Duplessis moved away, sighing heavily; but he said no more in
deprecation of Alain's martial resolves.

A Frenchman, however practical, however worldly, however philosophical
he may be, who does not sympathise with the follies of honour--who
does not concede indulgence to the hot blood of youth when he says, "My
country is insulted and her banner is unfurled," may certainly be a man
of excellent common sense; but if such men had been in the majority,
Gaul would never have been France--Gaul would have been a province of
Germany.

And as Duplessis walked homeward--he the calmest and most far-seeing of
all authorities on the Bourse--the man who, excepting only De Mauleon,
most decidedly deemed the cause of the war a blunder, and most
forebodingly anticipated its issues, caught the prevalent enthusiasm.
Everywhere he was stopped by cordial hands, everywhere met by
congratulating smiles. "How right you have been, Duplessis, when you
have laughed at those who have said, 'The Emperor is ill, decrepit, done
up.'"

"Vive l'Empereur! at least we shall be face to face with those insolent
Prussians!"

Before he arrived at his home, passing along the Boulevards, greeted by
all the groups enjoying the cool night air before the cafes, Duplessis
had caught the war epidemic.

Entering his hotel, he went at once to Valerie's chamber. "Sleep well
to-night, child; Alain has told me that he adores thee, and if he will
go to the war, it is that he may lay his laurels at thy feet. Bless
thee, my child, thou couldst not have made a nobler choice."

Whether, after these words, Valerie slep