ed Bargeton the Mute by way of
distinction) should by rights have been born to the title of Marquis of
Bargeton; he would have been connected with some great family or other,
and in due time he would have been a duke and a peer of France, like
many another; whereas, in 1805, he thought himself uncommonly lucky when
he married Mlle. Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, the daughter of a
noble long relegated to the obscurity of his manor-house, scion though
he was of the younger branch of one of the oldest families in the south
of France. There had been a Negrepelisse among the hostages of St.
Louis. The head of the elder branch, however, had borne the illustrious
name of d'Espard since the reign of Henri Quatre, when the Negrepelisse
of that day married an heiress of the d'Espard family. As for M. de
Negrepelisse, the younger son of a younger son, he lived upon his wife's
property, a small estate in the neighborhood of Barbezieux, farming
the land to admiration, selling his corn in the market himself, and
distilling his own brandy, laughing at those who ridiculed him, so
long as he could pile up silver crowns, and now and again round out his
estate with another bit of land.

Circumstances unusual enough in out-of-the-way places in the country had
inspired Mme. de Bargeton with a taste for music and reading. During
the Revolution one Abbe Niollant, the Abbe Roze's best pupil, found a
hiding-place in the old manor-house of Escarbas, and brought with
him his baggage of musical compositions. The old country gentleman's
hospitality was handsomely repaid, for the Abbe undertook his daughter's
education. Anais, or Nais, as she was called must otherwise have been
left to herself, or, worse still, to some coarse-minded servant-maid.
The Abbe was not only a musician, he was well and widely read, and knew
both Italian and German; so Mlle. de Negrepelise received instruction
in those tongues, as well as in counterpoint. He explained the great
masterpieces of the French, German, and Italian literatures, and
deciphered with her the music of the great composers. Finally, as time
hung heavy on his hands in the seclusion enforced by political storms,
he taught his pupil Latin and Greek and some smatterings of natural
science. A mother might have modified the effects of a man's education
upon a young girl, whose independent spirit had been fostered in the
first place by a country life. The Abbe Niollant, an enthusiast and a
poet, possessed