ebriant of you at a better price than it can command at public sale.
Sell it to him. Appeal to him to act generously, and you will flatter
him. You will get more than the old place is worth. Invest the
surplus--live as you have done, or better--and marry an heiress.
Morbleu! a Marquis de Rochebriant, if he were sixty years old, would
rank high in the matrimonial market. The more the democrats have sought
to impoverish titles and laugh down historical names, the more do rich
democrat fathers-in-law seek to decorate their daughters with titles
and give their grandchildren the heritage of historical names. You look
shocked, pauvre anti. Let us hope, then, that Collot will pay. Set your
dog--I mean your lawyer--at him; seize him by the throat!"

Before Alain had recovered from the stately silence with which he had
heard this very practical counsel, the valet again appeared, and ushered
in M. Frederic Lemercier.

There was no cordial acquaintance between the visitors. Lemercier was
chafed at finding himself supplanted in Alain's intimate companionship
by so new a friend, and De Finisterre affected to regard Lemercier as a
would-be exquisite of low birth and bad taste.

Alain, too, was a little discomposed at the sight of Lemercier,
remembering the wise cautious which that old college friend had wasted
on him at the commencement of his Parisian career, and smitten with vain
remorse that the cautions had been so arrogantly slighted.

It was with some timidity that he extended his hand to Frederic, and he
was surprised as well as moved by the more than usual warmth with which
it was grasped by the friend he had long neglected. Such affectionate
greeting was scarcely in keeping with the pride which characterised
Frederic Lemercier.

"Ma foi!" said the Chevalier, glancing towards the clock, "how time
flies! I had no idea it was so late. I must leave you now, my dear
Rochebriant. Perhaps we shall meet at the club later--I dine there
to-day. Au plaisir, M. Lemercier."

CHAPTER III.

When the door had closed on the Chevalier, Frederic's countenance became
very grave. Drawing his chair near to Alain, he said: "We have not seen
much of each other lately,--nay, no excuses; I am well aware that it
could scarcely be otherwise. Paris has grown so large and so subdivided
into sets, that the best friends belonging to different sets become
as divided as if the Atlantic flowed between them. I come to-day in
consequence of someth