or a month she was a leader of fashionable
revels, and a very princess of masquerade. If it were known that at a
particular ball she would appear as a heathen goddess, the _salons_ were
thronged with illustrations of mythology. When she wore the quaint dress
of a Brittany peasant, all classes affected a rural simplicity. She had
only to personate Joan of Arc, and a martial spirit fired the assembly;
and when she crowned her triumphs by enacting a dashing young cavalier
of the period, women as well as men yielded their admiration and
contended for her smiles. After so brilliant a career, what could she
care for the applause which her dexterous disguises excited in the
drowsy masquerades of Nantes. It served only to recall to her the
vanished glories of the capital.

M. de Berniers, as chance would have it, was ignorant of the peculiar
sensation which Virginie had created in the _beau monde_. During her
month at Paris he had been hunting upon the estates of a noble friend in
the East of France, and when he returned to his accustomed haunts, some
time after, the fickle heart of society was fixed upon some new object
of adoration, and cherished no recollection of the past. So he arrived
at Terville with little knowledge of his intended _fiancee_, except that
she was young, reputed good-looking, and the possessor of great riches.
Leaving M. de Montalvan at the village inn, he rode over to the chateau
the first morning after their arrival, to present himself in due form.

The fresh country atmosphere and the picturesque surroundings of the
journey had done more to cheer M. de Montalvan's spirits than a college
of physicians could have accomplished. The wound which he had received
in his ridiculous duel was nearly healed, and he seemed more a man of
the world than at any previous period in ten years,--always excepting
the brief term of his acquaintance with Virginie. In spite of his
natural hardihood, he was somewhat uneasy at the thought of again
meeting that young lady, for whom he entertained, to say the least, a
feeling of profound admiration; but curiosity was powerful within him,
and he waited anxiously for the expected summons to the chateau. Any
other sentiment than that of curiosity it would have been absurd for him
to acknowledge. He was poor, and therefore unavailable in a matrimonial
way. He had no domains adjoining the Terville estates, nor indeed
anywhere else. He had nothing but his sword and his renown; and the