tment, these girlish
manoeuvres like those of a peacock spreading his tail, had brought Paul
to the point at which his future mother-in-law desired to see him. He
was intoxicated with love, and his eyes, the sure thermometer of the
soul, indicated the degree of passion at which a man commits a thousand
follies.

"Natalie is so beautiful," he whispered to the mother, "that I can
conceive the frenzy which leads a man to pay for his happiness by
death."

Madame Evangelista replied with a shake of her head:--

"Lover's talk, my dear count. My husband never said such charming things
to me; but he married me without a fortune and for thirteen years he
never caused me one moment's pain."

"Is that a lesson you are giving me?" said Paul, laughing.

"You know how I love you, my dear son," she answered, pressing his hand.
"I must indeed love you well to give you my Natalie."

"Give me, give me?" said the young girl, waving a screen of Indian
feathers, "what are you whispering about me?"

"I was telling her," replied Paul, "how much I love you, since etiquette
forbids me to tell it to you."

"Why?"

"I fear to say too much."

"Ah! you know too well how to offer the jewels of flattery. Shall I tell
you my private opinion about you? Well, I think you have more mind than
a lover ought to have. To be the Pink of Fashion and a wit as well," she
added, dropping her eyes, "is to have too many advantages: a man should
choose between them. I fear too, myself."

"And why?"

"We must not talk in this way. Mamma, do you not think that this
conversation is dangerous inasmuch as the contract is not yet signed?"

"It soon will be," said Paul.

"I should like to know what Achilles and Nestor are saying to each other
in the next room," said Natalie, nodding toward the door of the little
salon with a childlike expression of curiosity.

"They are talking of our children and our death and a lot of other such
trifles; they are counting our gold to see if we can keep five horses in
the stables. They are talking also of deeds of gift; but there, I have
forestalled them."

"How so?"

"Have I not given myself wholly to you?" he said, looking straight at
the girl, whose beauty was enhanced by the blush which the pleasure of
this answer brought to her face.

"Mamma, how can I acknowledge so much generosity."

"My dear child, you have a lifetime before you in which to return it.
To make the daily happiness of a home, is to bring a t