e husband adored us, and that we mourned for
him sincerely. If we did have a settlement of accounts with a short
inventory attached, made, as one may say, by common report, you can
thank our surrogate guardian, who obliged us to establish a status and
assign to our daughter a fortune, such as it is, at a time when we were
forced to withdraw from London our English securities, the capital of
which was immense, and re-invest the proceeds in Paris, where interests
were doubled."

"Don't talk nonsense to me. There are various ways of verifying the
property. What was the amount of your legacy tax? Those figures will
enable us to get at the total. Come to the point. Tell us frankly what
you received from the father's estate and how much remains of it. If we
are very much in love we'll see then what we can do."

"If you are marrying us for our money you can go about your business. We
have claims to more than a million; but all that remains to our mother
is this house and furniture and four hundred odd thousand francs
invested about 1817 in the Five-per-cents, which yield about
forty-thousand francs a year."

"Then why do you live in a style that requires one hundred thousand a
year at the least?" cried Mathias, horror-stricken.

"Our daughter has cost us the eyes out of our head," replied Solonet.
"Besides, we like to spend money. Your jeremiads, let me tell you, won't
recover two farthings of the money."

"With the fifty thousand francs a year which belong to Mademoiselle
Natalie you could have brought her up handsomely without coming to ruin.
But if you have squandered everything while you were a girl what will it
be when you are a married woman?"

"Then drop us altogether," said Solonet. "The handsomest girl in
Bordeaux has a right to spend more than she has, if she likes."

"I'll talk to my client about that," said the old notary.

"Very good, old father Cassandra, go and tell your client that we
haven't a penny," thought Solonet, who, in the solitude of his study,
had strategically massed his forces, drawn up his propositions, manned
the drawbridge of discussion, and prepared the point at which the
opposing party, thinking the affair a failure, could suddenly be led
into a compromise which would end in the triumph of his client.

The white dress with its rose-colored ribbons, the Sevigne curls,
Natalie's tiny foot, her winning glance, her pretty fingers constantly
employed in adjusting curls that needed no adjus