n were bidden. In spite
of the coldness that Paul assumed, which deceived neither mother
nor daughter, he was drawn, step by step, into the path of marriage.
Sometimes as he passed in his tilbury, or rode by on his fine English
horse, he heard the young men of his acquaintance say to one another:--

"There's a lucky man. He is rich and handsome, and is to marry, so they
say, Mademoiselle Evangelista. There are some men for whom the world
seems made."

When he met the Evangelistas he felt proud of the particular distinction
which mother and daughter imparted to their bows. If Paul had not
secretly, within his heart, fallen in love with Mademoiselle Natalie,
society would certainly have married him to her in spite of himself.
Society, which never causes good, is the accomplice of much evil; then
when it beholds the evil it has hatched maternally, it rejects and
revenges it. Society in Bordeaux, attributing a "dot" of a million to
Mademoiselle Evangelista, bestowed it upon Paul without awaiting the
consent of either party. Their fortunes, so it was said, agreed as well
as their persons. Paul had the same habits of luxury and elegance in
the midst of which Natalie had been brought up. He had just arranged for
himself a house such as no other man in Bordeaux could have offered her.
Accustomed to Parisian expenses and the caprices of Parisian women, he
alone was fitted to meet the pecuniary difficulties which were likely to
follow this marriage with a girl who was as much of a Creole and a great
lady as her mother. Where they themselves, remarked the marriageable
men, would have been ruined, the Comte de Manerville, rich as he was,
could evade disaster. In short, the marriage was made. Persons in
the highest royalist circles said a few engaging words to Paul which
flattered his vanity:--

"Every one gives you Mademoiselle Evangelista. If you marry her you will
do well. You could not find, even in Paris, a more delightful girl. She
is beautiful, graceful, elegant, and takes after the Casa-Reales through
her mother. You will make a charming couple; you have the same tastes,
the same desires in life, and you will certainly have the most agreeable
house in Bordeaux. Your wife need only bring her night-cap; all is ready
for her. You are fortunate indeed in such a mother-in-law. A woman of
intelligence, and very adroit, she will be a great help to you in
public life, to which you ought to aspire. Besides, she has sacrificed
ever