oes not reason thus, and never forgives us for
the guilt of poverty. Reduced to that, we suffer humiliations which any
one may observe in the lives of multitudes of our nobles. Yes; society
regards poverty as a crime, and it treats us like outcasts. Our equals
avoid us in order not to be confounded in our misery; while peasants and
tradesmen laugh at our misfortune as if it was a sort of agreeable
revenge. Happy, happy they to whom heaven has given an angel to pour
comfort and consolation into their hearts in hours of want and
dejection! But listen, my child!

"My brother was saved, and I concealed most carefully the assistance I
had been to him; he left the country and went with his wife to America,
where, ever since, he has worked hard and gained hardly enough to
support a miserable existence. His wife died during the voyage. And, as
to ourselves, we no longer possess any thing; for Grinselhof and our
other lands were mortgaged for more than they were worth. Besides this,
I was forced to borrow from a gentleman of my acquaintance four thousand
_francs_ upon my bond.

"When your mother heard of the sacrifices to which I was forced to
submit, she made no reproaches; at first she fully approved my conduct.
But very soon we became necessarily subjected to privations under which
your mother's strength declined, till, without a sigh or complaint, she
began to fade away slowly from earth. It was a dreadful situation; for,
to conceal our ruin and save our ancestral name from contempt, we were
forced to part with the last ounce of our silver to pay the interest on
our debts. Gradually our horses and servants disappeared; the paths that
led to our neighbors soon became grass-grown; and we declined all social
invitations, so as to avoid the necessity of returning the compliment. A
rumor about us began to spread through the village and among the noble
families that had formerly been on terms of intimacy with us; and
scandal declared that _avarice_ had driven us to a life of meanness and
isolation! We joyously accepted the imputation, and even the coldness
with which our holiday friends accompanied it; it was a veil with which
society thought proper to cover us, and beneath its folds our poverty
was safe from scrutiny.

"But I am approaching scenes, my child, the recollection of which almost
unnerves me. My story has reached the most painful moment of my life,
and I beseech you to hear me calmly.

"Your poor mother wasted away