any
more, and I leave you quite free. I am more reasonable than you are."

But on the other hand, and according to an expression which escaped
him later, he tried to turn the enemy.

He did every thing in his power to spread in the neighborhood the
rumor of Mlle. Gilberte's marriage with a financier of colossal
wealth,--that elegant young man who came in a coupe with two horses.
Mme. Favoral could not enter a shop without being covertly
complimented upon having found such a magnificent establishment for
her daughter.

Loud, indeed, must have been the gossip; for its echo reached even
the inattentive ears of the Signor Gismondo Pulei.

One day, suddenly interrupting his lesson,--"You are going to be
married, signora?" he inquired.

Mlle. Gilberte started.

What the old Italian had heard, he would surely ere long repeat to
Marius. It was therefore urgent to undeceive him.

"It is true," she replied, "that something has been said about a
marriage, dear maestro."

"Ah, ah!"

"Only my father had not consulted me. That marriage will never
take place: I swear it."

She expressed herself in a tone of such ardent conviction, that the
old gentleman was quite astonished, little dreaming that it was not
to him that this energetic denial was addressed.

"My destiny is irrevocably fixed," added Mlle. Gilberte. "When I
marry, I will consult the inspirations of my heart only."

In the mean time, it was a veritable conspiracy against her. M.
Favoral had succeeded in interesting in the success of his designs
his habitual guests, not M. and Mme. Desclavettes, who had been
seduced from the first, but M. Chapelain and old Desormeaux himself.
So that they all vied with each other in their efforts to bring the
"dear child" to reason, and to enlighten her with their counsels.

"Father must have a still more considerable interest in this alliance
than he has allowed us to think," she remarked to her brother.
Maxence was also absolutely of the same opinion.

"And then," he added, "our father must be terribly rich; for, do not
deceive yourself, it isn't solely for your pretty blue eyes that
this Costeclar persists in coming here twice a week to pocket a new
mortification. What enormous dowry can he be hoping for? I am
going to speak to him myself, and try to find out what he is after."

But Mlle. Gilberte had but slight confidence in her brother's
diplomacy.

"I beg of you," she said, "don't meddle with that business