have spent our lives in hearing plebeians
say _if_. _If_ brought about the Revolution. When a man cannot lay the
blame on his father or mother, he holds God responsible for his hard
lot. In short, dear child, we are here to open your eyes. I will say all
I have to say in a few words, on which you had better meditate: A woman
ought never to put her husband in the right."

"Uncle, so long as I cared for nobody, I could calculate; I looked at
interests then, as you do; now, I can only feel."

"But, my dear little girl," remonstrated the Vidame, "life is simply a
complication of interests and feelings; to be happy, more particularly
in your position, one must try to reconcile one's feelings with
one's interests. A grisette may love according to her fancy, that is
intelligible enough, but you have a pretty fortune, a family, a name and
a place at Court, and you ought not to fling them out of the window.
And what have we been asking you to do to keep them all?--To manoeuvre
carefully instead of falling foul of social conventions. Lord! I shall
very soon be eighty years old, and I cannot recollect, under any regime,
a love worth the price that you are willing to pay for the love of this
lucky young man."

The Duchess silenced the Vidame with a look; if Montriveau could have
seen that glance, he would have forgiven all.

"It would be very effective on the stage," remarked the Duc de
Grandlieu, "but it all amounts to nothing when your jointure and
position and independence is concerned. You are not grateful, my dear
niece. You will not find many families where the relatives have courage
enough to teach the wisdom gained by experience, and to make rash young
heads listen to reason. Renounce your salvation in two minutes, if it
pleases you to damn yourself; well and good; but reflect well beforehand
when it comes to renouncing your income. I know of no confessor who
remits the pains of poverty. I have a right, I think, to speak in this
way to you; for if you are ruined, I am the one person who can offer you
a refuge. I am almost an uncle to Langeais, and I alone have a right to
put him in the wrong."

The Duc de Navarreins roused himself from painful reflections.

"Since you speak of feeling, my child," he said, "let me remind you that
a woman who bears your name ought to be moved by sentiments which do
not touch ordinary people. Can you wish to give an advantage to the
Liberals, to those Jesuits of Robespierre's that are do