t young girl associate so
much with foreigners?' You say they are old school-fellows, they went to
the 'cours' together. But see if Madame d'Etaples and Madame Ray, under
the same pretext, let Isabelle and Yvonne associate with the Odinskas!
As to that foolish woman, Madame d'Avrigny, she goes to their house
to look up recruits for her operettas, and Madame Strahlberg has one
advantage over regular artists, there is no call to pay her. That is the
reason why she invites her. Besides which, she won't find it so easy to
marry Dolly."

"Oh! there are several reasons for that," said the Baron, who could see
the mote in his neighbor's eye, "Mademoiselle d'Avrigny has led a life
so very worldly ever since she was a child, so madly fast and lively,
that suitors are afraid of her. Jacqueline, thank heaven, has never yet
been in what is called the world. She only visits those with whom she is
on terms of intimacy."

"An intimacy which includes all Paris," said Madame d'Argy, raising her
eyes to heaven. "If she does not go to great balls, it is only because
her stepmother is bored by them. But with that exception it seems to me
she is allowed to do anything. I don't see the difference. But, to be
sure, if Jacqueline is not for us, you have a right to say that I am
interfering in what does not concern me."

"Not at all," said the unfortunate father, "I feel how much I ought to
value your advice, and an alliance with your family would please me more
than anything."

He said the truth, for he was disturbed by seeing M. de Cymier so slow
in making his proposals, and he was also aware that young girls in our
day are less sought for in marriage than they used to be. His friend
Wermant, rich as he was, had had some trouble in capturing for Berthe a
fellow of no account in the Faubourg St. Germain, and the prize was not
much to be envied. He was a young man without brains and without a sou,
who enjoyed so little consideration among his own people that his wife
had not been received as she expected, and no one spoke of Madame de
Belvan without adding: "You know, that little Wermant, daughter of the
'agent de change'."

Of course, Jacqueline had the advantage of good birth over Berthe,
but how great was her inferiority in point of fortune! M. de Nailles
sometimes confided these perplexities to his wife, without, however,
receiving much comfort from her. Nor did the Baroness confess to her
husband all her own fears. In secret she ofte