ppled shadows of the linden trees, and
that was the only satisfactory interview I had with Francezka that
bout.

Gaston Cheverny had not so much as even one satisfactory interview,
for, straightway, Francezka was pounced upon by every man who felt the
need of fortune for himself or his sons, and every woman who thought
the estates of Capello would be desirable in her family. Besides this,
there were numbers of young officers who were deeply smitten by
Francezka's own dark eyes, for she was one of those women born to
trouble the hearts of men. No young girl ever had more of admiration
and adulation than Francezka had, on this her first entrance upon a
larger stage than that of a province.

Count Saxe showed her marked, but respectful attention. The Crown
Prince Frederick of Prussia admired her openly, and always danced with
her at the grand balls given every other night by the King of Saxony.
As for the young sprigs of royalty and nobility, Mademoiselle Capello
was the toast of the hour with them, and he that could rob her of her
little slipper and drink her health in it was reckoned a hero.

It may be imagined how pleasant this was to Gaston Cheverny, who could
scarce come near Francezka for the press. Moreover, Count Saxe
attended that camp to work, and he made everybody under him work; so
that Gaston Cheverny had not many hours to play the gallant to any
one. Regnard Cheverny, who was merely a guest, had all the time he
wanted to pursue Mademoiselle Capello, but not even he, the
persistent, the tenacious, could charge successfully through the
cordon of admirers which always surrounded Francezka now. I saw her
sometimes at a distance, dancing at a ball, and looking like a fairy
princess out of a story book; or, riding like a lapwing with Count
Saxe, and other officers; or again, in gorgeous pleasure parties on
the river. But she was like a comet in its brilliant but erratic
course through the heavens, and no longer a fixed star, whose orbit is
known.

Gaston Cheverny's misery was extreme. He passed at once from the high
heaven of delight to the lowest deeps of wretchedness, because,
forsooth, Mademoiselle Capello did not show him the exclusive
consideration she had bestowed on him in Brabant. He called her many
of the hardest names in the lexicon; one would have thought to hear
him rail at her, that she was under a strict obligation not to speak
to another man than himself. Count Saxe and I rallied him often, but