ong
the youthful exquisites there, or riding au Bois, with a grace worthy
of old Franconi himself, you would take him for one of the young men,
of whom indeed up to his marriage he retained a number of the graceful
follies and amusements, though his manners had a dignity acquired in
old days of Versailles and the Trianon, which the moderns cannot hope
to imitate. He was as assiduous behind the scenes of the opera as any
journalist, or any young dandy of twenty years. He "ranged himself," as
the French phrase is, shortly before his marriage, just like any other
young bachelor: took leave of Phryne and Aspasie in the coulisses, and
proposed to devote himself henceforth to his charming young wife.

The affreux catastrophe of July arrived. The ancient Bourbons were once
more on the road to exile (save one wily old remnant of the race, who
rode grinning over the barricades, and distributing poignees de main to
the stout fists that had pummelled his family out of France). M. le Duc
d'Ivry, who lost his place at court, his appointments which helped his
income very much, and his peerage would no more acknowledge the usurper
of Neuilly, than him of Elba. The ex-peer retired to his terres. He
barricaded his house in Paris against all supporters of the citizen
king; his nearest kinsman, M. de Florac, among the rest, who for
his part cheerfully took his oath of fidelity, and his seat in Louis
Philippe's house of peers, having indeed been accustomed to swear to all
dynasties for some years past.

In due time Madame la Duchesse d'Ivry gave birth to a child, a daughter,
whom her noble father received with but small pleasure. What the Duke
desired, was an heir to his name, a Prince of Moncontour, to fill the
place of the sons and grandsons gone before him, to join their ancestors
in the tomb. No more children, however, blessed the old Duke's union.
Madame d'Ivry went the round of all the watering-places: pilgrimages
were tried: vows and gifts to all saints supposed to be favourable to
the d'Ivry family, or to families in general:--but the saints turned
a deaf ear; they were inexorable since the true religion and the elder
Bourbons were banished from France.

Living by themselves in their ancient castles, or their dreary mansion
of the Faubourg St. Germain, I suppose the Duke and Duchess grew tried
of one another, as persons who enter into a mariage de convenance
sometimes, nay, as those who light a flaming love-match, and run away
w