tle girl,
who had escaped miraculously, was the home of her uncle, who showed her
great kindness during the two years of life that remained to him. With
her, however, were Alexandre, whose companionship was rather dull,
and his younger sister, Seraphine, a big, vicious, and flighty girl
of eighteen, who, as it happened, soon left the house amid a frightful
scandal--an elopement with a certain Baron Lowicz, a genuine baron, but
a swindler and forger, to whom it became necessary to marry her. She
then received a dowry of 300,000 francs. Alexandre, after his father's
death, made a money match with Constance, who brought him half a million
francs, and Marianne then found herself still more a stranger, still
more isolated beside her new cousin, a thin, dry, authoritative woman,
who ruled the home with absolute sway. Mathieu was there, however, and a
few months sufficed: fine, powerful, and healthy love sprang up between
the young people; there was no lightning flash such as throws the
passion-swayed into each other's arms, but esteem, tenderness, faith,
and that mutual conviction of happiness in reciprocal bestowal which
tends to indissoluble marriage. And they were delighted at marrying
penniless, at bringing one another but their full hearts forever and
forever. The only change in Mathieu's circumstances was an increase of
salary to two hundred francs a month. True, his new cousin by marriage
just vaguely hinted at a possible partnership, but that would not be
till some very much later date.

As it happened Mathieu Froment gradually became indispensable at the
works. The young master, Alexandre Beauchene, passed through an anxious
crisis. The dowry which his father had been forced to draw from his
coffers in order to get Seraphine married, and other large expenses
which had been occasioned by the girl's rebellious and perverse conduct,
had left but little working capital in the business. Then, too, on
the morrow of Leon Beauchene's death it was found that, with the
carelessness often evinced in such matters, he had neglected to leave
a will; so that Seraphine eagerly opposed her brother's interests,
demanding her personal share of the inheritance, and even suggesting
the sale of the works. The property had narrowly escaped being cut up,
annihilated. And Alexandre Beauchene still shivered with terror and
anger at the recollection of that time, amidst all his delight at having
at last rid himself of his sister by paying her