"Ha! little rogue, I see you are not quite so indifferent as you
pretend."

"My _heart_ is indifferent--but--but he is very handsome--don't you
think so?"

"Hush! here he is."

"I have the happiness, madame, to present Monsieur le Marquis de
Secqville, with whom, as you are aware, we are about to have the honor
of being nearly allied."

So said Monsieur le Prun, with a smile of conjugal affection, which may,
or may not, have been genuine.

"I was not until now aware of the full extent of the honor and the
happiness involved in that alliance," said the marquis, with a glance of
respectful admiration.

Madame le Prun acknowledged this little speech with a slight bow, and a
cold and haughty smile.

"You have been in the south lately?"

"Yes, madame, with my regiment at Avignon."

"So he says," interrupted the fermier-general, with a cunning leer; "but
his colonel swears he never saw him there."

"Then either you or your colonel must be wrong," said Madame le Prun,
drily.

"No, no, madame; but Monsieur le Prun likes a jest at my expense."

"Not at all," said Le Prun, laughing; "I protest D'Artois, his colonel,
vows he has not seen him for six months at least."

"They are in a conspiracy to quiz me."

"Then you _were_ at Avignon?"

"No such thing, I tell you; the fellow was about some mischief--ha! ha!
ha!"

"He is resolved to laugh at me."

"Yes, yes, I say he is a mischievous fellow--the most dangerous dog in
France; and so shy that, by my word, it requires a shrewd fellow like
myself to discover his rogueries."

"And so he deserves not only _all_ my sins, but a great deal more."

"Stay--here is the Visconte de Charrebourg. Visconte, this is the
Marquis de Secqville, my future nephew."

The old visconte looked closely and dubiously for a moment in the young
man's face. The marquis, on the contrary, seemed to have some little
difficulty in suppressing a smile.

"But that I know I have not had the honor of meeting you before, I
should----but no doubt it is a family likeness. I knew your father when
he was about your age, and a very handsome fellow, by my faith. Is his
brother, the Conte de Cresseron, still living?"

The old gentleman drew the marquis away before he had had time to pay
his devoirs to Julie, who had shrunk at his approach into the
background, and left the little group to themselves.

"What do you think of him?" whispered Julie, resuming her place by
Lucille.

"He is pretty wel