y, and though I know something of agriculture, I supposed the
tale of estates bringing in four or five thousand francs a month to be
a fable. Money, to me, meant a couple of dreadful things,--work and a
publisher, journalism and politics. When shall we poor fellows come upon
a land where gold springs up with the grass? That is what I desire for
you and for me and the rest of us in the name of the theatre, and of the
press, and of book-making! Amen!

Will Florine be jealous of the late Mademoiselle Laguerre? Our modern
Bourets have no French nobles now to show them how to live; they hire
one opera-box among three of them; they subscribe for their pleasures;
they no longer cut down magnificently bound quartos to match the octavos
in their library; in fact, they scarcely buy even stitched paper books.
What is to become of us?

Adieu; continue to care for
Your Blondet.

If this letter, dashed off by the idlest pen of the century, had not by
some lucky chance been preserved, it would have been almost impossible
to describe Les Aigues; and without this description the history of the
horrible events that occurred there would certainly be less interesting.

After that remark some persons will expect to see the flashing of the
cuirass of the former colonel of the guard, and the raging of his anger
as he falls like a waterspout upon his little wife; so that the end
of this present history may be like the end of all modern dramas,--a
tragedy of the bed-chamber. Perhaps the fatal scene will take place
in that charming room with the blue monochromes, where beautiful ideal
birds are painted on the ceilings and the shutters, where Chinese
monsters laugh with open jaws on the mantle-shelf, and dragons, green
and gold, twist their tails in curious convolutions around rich vases,
and Japanese fantasy embroiders its designs of many colors; where
sofas and reclining-chairs and consoles and what-nots invite to that
contemplative idleness which forbids all action.

No; the drama here to be developed is not one of private life; it
concerns things higher, or lower. Expect no scenes of passion; the truth
of this history is only too dramatic. And remember, the historian should
never forget that his mission is to do justice to all; the poor and the
prosperous are equals before his pen; to him the peasant appears in
the grandeur of his misery, and the rich in the p