elf at his table. "Will you
dictate the letter yourself, Dorsenne?... See, is this all right? You
will understand with what sentiments we have accepted this mission when
you learn that Fanny is betrothed to Prince Ardea, here present. The
news dates from three o'clock. So you are the first to know it, is he
not, Peppino?" He had drawn up not less than two hundred despatches.
"Return whenever you like with the Marquis.... I simply ask, under the
circumstances, that the interview take place, if it be possible, between
six and seven, or between nine and ten, in order not to interfere with
our little family dinner."

"Let us say nine o'clock," said Dorsenne. "Monsieur de Montfanon is
somewhat formal. He would like to have your reply by letter."

"Prince Ardea to marry Mademoiselle Hafner!" That cry which the news
brought by Julien wrested from Montfanon was so dolorous that the young
man did not think of laughing. He had thought it wiser to prepare his
irascible friend, lest the Baron might make some allusion to the grand
event during the course of the conversation, and that the other might
not make some impulsive remark.

"Did I not tell you that the girl's Catholicism was a farce? Did I not
tell Monseigneur Guerillot? This was what she aimed at all those years,
with such perfect hypocrisy? It was the Palais Castagna. And she will
enter there as mistress!... She will bring there the dishonor of that
pirated gold on which there are stains of blood! Warn them, that they do
not speak to me of it, or I will not answer for myself.... The second
of a Gorka, the father-in-law of an Ardea, he triumphs, the thief who
should by rights be a convict!... But we shall see. Will not all the
other Roman princes who have no blots upon their escutcheons,
the Orsinis, the Colonnas, the Odeschalchis, the Borgheses, the
Rospigliosis, not combine to prevent this monstrosity? Nobility is like
love, those who buy those sacred things degrade them in paying for them,
and those to whom they are given are no better than mire.... Princess
d'Ardea! That creature! Ah, what a disgrace!... But we must remember
our engagement relative to that brave young Chapron. The boy pleases me;
first, because very probably he is going to fight for some one else and
out of a devotion which I can not very well understand! It is devotion
all the same, and it is chivalry!... He desires to prevent that
miserable Gorka from calling forth a scandal which would have warned