The Parisians, Book 1.

l of a great family in the old regime. On the first floor were still superb apartments, w

uous 'grisette.' But there was to him a charm in that old hotel, and the richest 'locataire' therein was not treated with a respect so ceremonious as that which at tended the lodger on the fourth story. The porter and his wife were Bretons; they came from the village of Rochebriant; they had known Alain's parents in their young days; it was their kinsma

oom, and busied herself at the fire. "Gently, my good Marthe," said he, "

sts," said the ol

'Entre nous,' my dear friend, Paris is very dear when one sets

es back to Rochebriant

-some pretty angel

t would not suffice to repair them, Marthe

Marquis! beaux reve

? yet inaction in youth is more keenly felt than in age. How lightly I should endure poverty if it brought poverty's ennobling com

ern France, his destined heritage seemed not unsuitable to his illustrious birth. Educated at a provincial academy, he had been removed at the age of sixtee

rbons; how, they knew not, though they often amused themselves by conjecturing: and, the young man, as he grew up, nursed the hope that he should soon hear that the descendant of Henri Quatre had crossed the frontier on a white charger and hoisted the old gonfalon with its 'fleur-de-lis.' Then, indeed, his own career would be opened, and the sword of the Kerouecs drawn from its sheath

ian Princess, who, for some mysterious reason, never visited her own country and obstinately refused to reside in France. She was fond of travel, and moved yearly from London to Naples, Naples to Vienna

against the Marquis's notions of his own dignity. He had his own carriage, his own apartments, his own suite, as became so grand a seigneur and the lover of so grand a dame. His estates, mortgaged before he came to them, yielded no income sufficient for his wants; he mortgaged deeper and deeper, year after year, till he could mortgage them no more.

ried to his Princess so soon as her own husband died. She had been separated from the Prince for many years, and every year it was said he could not last a year long

the Princess; and the shock to Alain and his aunt was the greater because they had seen so little of the departed that they regarded him as a heroic myth, an impersonation of ancient chivalry, condemning himself to voluntary exile rather than do homage to usurpers. But from their grief they were soon roused by the terrible doubt whether Rochebriant could still be retained in the family. Besides the mortgagees, creditors from half the capitals in Eur

evinced the natural strength of his character by the calmness with which he

roperty out of peril; for the principal mortgagee, who was a capitalist in Paris named Louvier, having had during the life of the late Marquis more than once to wait for his half-yearly interest longer than suited his patience,-and his patience was not enduring,-plainly declared that if the same delay recurred he should put his right of sei

e establishment hitherto kept at the chateau, resigned such rural pleasures as he had been accustomed

ing close on the town of S_____, I think I could dispose of for building purposes at high rates; but these lands are covered by M. Louvier's general mortgage, and he has refused to release them, unless the whole debt be paid. Were that debt therefore transferred to another mortgagee, we might stipulate for their exception, and in so doing secure a sum of more than 100,000 francs, which you could keep in reserve for a pressing or unforeseen occasion, and make the nucleus of a capital devoted to the gradual liquidation of the charges on the estate. For with a little capital, Monsieur le Marquis, your rent- roll might be very greatly increased, the forests and orchards improved, those meadows round S_____ drained and irrigated. Agriculture is beginning to be understood in Bretagne, and your estate w

t young life so barrenly wasted in seclusion and severe privations; he respected, but was too practical a man of business to share, those chivalrous sentiments of loyalty to an exiled dynasty which disqualified the man for the age he lived in, and, if not greatly modified, would cut him off from the hopes and aspirations of his eager generation. He thought plausibly enough that the air of the grand metropolis was necessary to the mental health, enfeebled and withering amidst

igneuries. He therefore warned Alain that the affair for which he went to Paris might be tedious, that lawyers were always slow, and advised him to calculate on remaining several months, perhaps a year; delicately suggesting that his rearing hitherto had

hare. He felt the revolution in his whole being that commenced when out of sight of the petty principality in which he was the object of that feudal reverence,

olation of that solitude which is usually so oppressive to a stranger in the metropolis of his native land. Loneliness was better than the loss of self in the reek and pressure of an unfamiliar throng. For the first few days he had wandered over Paris without calling even on the 'avoue' to whom M. Hebert had directed him. He felt with the instinctive acuteness of a mind which, under sounder train

and person of an 'avoue' from his association with M. Hebert. He expected to find a dull house in a dull street near

unt 'au premier.' There, first detained in an office faultlessly neat, with spruce young men at smart desks, he was at length admitted into a noble salon, and into the presence of a

ce, and released the dog, who, after snif

ed and labelled, "charmed to make the honour of your acquaintance; just arrived at Paris? So M. Hebert-a very worthy person whom I have never seen, but with whom I have had correspondence-tells me yo

ine that there must be many capitalists in Paris wi

ts, thanks to the magnificent system of 'Credit Mobilier,' in which, as you are aware, a man may place his money i

sing, "I am to presume, sir, that

you have with you an abstract of the, necessary documents, the conditions of the

ving gone into it myself with M. Hebert, I can pledge

le Marquis: favour me with the abstract; in a week's time you shall have my opinion. You enjoy Paris? Greatly improved under the Emperor. 'Apropos,' Madame Gandrin receives tom

s the young men of his own years glided by him, or as their talk reached his ears, he became aware that from top to toe, within and without, he was old-fashioned, obsolete, not of his race, not of his day. His rank itself seemed to him a waste-paper title-deed to a heritage long lapsed. Not thus the princely seigneurs of Rochebriant made their 'debut' at the capital of their nation. They had had the 'entree' to the cabinets of their kings;

men to whom his aunt had given him letters. With the Count de Vandemar, one of his fellow-nobles of the sacred Faubourg, he should be no less Rochebriant, whether in a garret or a palace. The Vandemars, in fact, though for many generations before the First Revolution a pui

large proprietor, and might furnish advice to guide Alain in his negotiations with M. Gandrin. The Hotel do Vandem

g, over the portals of his lost ancestral house, and was about to cross the street, two young men,

e rider, checking his steed, lifted his hat to Alain and uttered a word of apology in the courtesy of ancient high-breeding, but still with condescension as to an inferior. This little incident, and the slighting kind of notice received from coevals of his own birth, and doubtless his own blood,-for he divined truly that they were the sons o

narrow but high forehead, and an expression of

"cousin," expressed immeasurable regret that the Countess was gone out on one of the missions of charity in which th

the Count's face. He somewhat drew back his fauteuil in the movement common to men who wish to estrange themselves from some other man's difficulties; and when Alain came to a close, the Count re

high. "Those are words no man can

tented with your father's conduct, of course it is no business of mine: he never injured me. I pr

d his head

he Count, placing the index of the right hand successively on the

servation of your property. By that course your life will be one of permanent privation, severe struggle; and the probability is that you will not succeed: there will come one or

stock- jobbers court and hunt after, for which they will give enormous sums. If you place it in good hands, I do not doubt that you could dispose of the property within three months, on terms that would l

at I take from my ancestors, and cannot volun

as implicitly conceded, if all Judaea encamped upon Rochebriant. Consider how few of us 'gentilshommes'

on which we cannot reason,-we can but feel. Roche

. Make yourself known to the people in power. They will be charmed to welcome you a convert from the old noblesse is a guarantee of stability to the new

ry V. formally resign his right to the throne of Saint Loui

oyments. The last course is perhaps better than the rest; at all events it is the easiest. A wealthy marriage; even if it must be a 'mesalliance.' I th

to go back to Rochebriant. I cannot sell my castle, I ca

of Louis Quinze. Marriages with people of sense and rank have always been 'marriages de convenance' in France. It is only in 'le petit monde' that men having nothing marry girls having nothing, and I don't believe

with a grim 'persiflag

wits of the old 'regime.' They pick up its light weapons on the battle-field on which their fathers p

o not thank you less for your advice bec

n you have been a month or two at Paris. By the way, my

la Comtesse receives, in the way that becomes

y the remembrance of my own youth and the sad experience of my own sons, that you would be irresistibly led into debt, and debt in your circumstances would be the loss of Rochebriant. No; I invite you to visit us. I offer you the most select but not the most brilliant circles of P

ound a relation and a guide," answered the Marquis, with nobility of mien

" and though he did not kiss his cousin's cheek this time, h

cipal events in Alain's

therto he had received

tponed an interview, no

all the details in th