y well; they certainly will not succeed to
their father's whole fortune. You will want to give them all that you
have; he will wish to do the same. Nothing more natural, dear me!
And you will find the law against you. How many times have we
seen heirs-at-law bringing a law-suit to recover the property from
illegitimate children? Every court of law rings with such actions all
over the world. You will create a _fidei commissum_ perhaps; and if the
trustee betrays your confidence, your children have no remedy against
him; and they are ruined. So choose carefully. You see the perplexities
of the position. In every possible way your children will be sacrificed
of necessity to the fancies of your heart; they will have no recognised
status. While they are little they will be charming; but, Lord! some day
they will reproach you for thinking of no one but your two selves. We
old gentlemen know all about it. Little boys grow up into men, and men
are ungrateful beings. When I was in Germany, did I not hear young de
Horn say, after supper, 'If my mother had been an honest woman, I should
be prince-regnant!' _If_?' We have spent our lives in hearing plebeians
say _if_. _If_ brought about the Revolution. When a man cannot lay the
blame on his father or mother, he holds God responsible for his hard
lot. In short, dear child, we are here to open your eyes. I will say all
I have to say in a few words, on which you had better meditate: A woman
ought never to put her husband in the right."

"Uncle, so long as I cared for nobody, I could calculate; I looked at
interests then, as you do; now, I can only feel."

"But, my dear little girl," remonstrated the Vidame, "life is simply a
complication of interests and feelings; to be happy, more particularly
in your position, one must try to reconcile one's feelings with
one's interests. A grisette may love according to her fancy, that is
intelligible enough, but you have a pretty fortune, a family, a name and
a place at Court, and you ought not to fling them out of the window.
And what have we been asking you to do to keep them all?--To manoeuvre
carefully instead of falling foul of social conventions. Lord! I shall
very soon be eighty years old, and I cannot recollect, under any regime,
a love worth the price that you are willing to pay for the love of this
lucky young man."

The Duchess silenced the Vidame with a look; if Montriveau could have
seen that glance, he would have forgiven all.

"