unt for nothing? Is there no joy in life,
no happiness, that wealth and pleasure and empty, high-sounding titles
are to be its only aims? I had set you high--so high, Aline--a thing
scarce earthly. There is joy in your heart, intelligence in your mind;
and, as I thought, the vision that pierces husks and shams to claim the
core of reality for its own. Yet you will surrender all for a parcel of
make-believe. You will sell your soul and your body to be Marquise de La
Tour d'Azyr."

"You are indelicate," said she, and though she frowned her eyes laughed.
"And you go headlong to conclusions. My uncle will not consent to more
than to allow my consent to be sought. We understand each other, my
uncle and I. I am not to be bartered like a turnip."

He stood still to face her, his eyes glowing, a flush creeping into his
pale cheeks.

"You have been torturing me to amuse yourself!" he cried. "Ah, well, I
forgive you out of my relief."

"Again you go too fast, Cousin Andre I have permitted my uncle to
consent that M. le Marquis shall make his court to me. I like the look
of the gentleman. I am flattered by his preference when I consider his
eminence. It is an eminence that I may find it desirable to share. M. le
Marquis does not look as if he were a dullard. It should be interesting
to be wooed by him. It may be more interesting still to marry him, and
I think, when all is considered, that I shall probably--very
probably--decide to do so."

He looked at her, looked at the sweet, challenging loveliness of that
childlike face so tightly framed in the oval of white fur, and all the
life seemed to go out of his own countenance.

"God help you, Aline!" he groaned.

She stamped her foot. He was really very exasperating, and something
presumptuous too, she thought.

"You are insolent, monsieur."

"It is never insolent to pray, Aline. And I did no more than pray, as I
shall continue to do. You'll need my prayers, I think."

"You are insufferable!" She was growing angry, as he saw by the
deepening frown, the heightened colour.

"That is because I suffer. Oh, Aline, little cousin, think well of what
you do; think well of the realities you will be bartering for these
shams--the realities that you will never know, because these cursed shams
will block your way to them. When M. de La Tour d'Azyr comes to make his
court, study him well; consult your fine instincts; leave your own noble
nature free to judge this animal by its intui