plished intrigante, with all the ardor of a mother, and
with all the piety of an unctuous devotee.

Her sister, the Baroness Tonnelier, bitterly confessed her own
disadvantage. She was not a widow. And she had no son. But she had two
daughters, both of them graceful, very elegant and sparkling. One was
Madame Bacquiere, the wife of a broker; the other, Madame Van-Cuyp, wife
of a young Hollander, doing business at Paris.

Both interpreted life and marriage gayly; both floated from one
year into another dancing, riding, hunting, coquetting, and singing
recklessly the most risque songs of the minor theatres. Formerly,
Camors, in his pensive mood, had taken an aversion to these little
examples of modern feminine frivolity. Since he had changed his views of
life he did them more justice. He said, calmly:

"They are pretty little animals that follow their instincts."

Mesdames Bacquiere and Van-Cuyp, instigated by their mother, applied
themselves assiduously to making the General feel all the sacred joys
that cluster round the domestic hearth. They enlivened his household,
exercised his horses, killed his game, and tortured his piano. They
seemed to think that the General, once accustomed to their sweetness and
animation, could not do without it, and that their society would become
indispensable to him. They mingled, too, with their adroit manoeuvres,
familiar and delicate attentions, likely to touch an old man. They
sat on his knees like children, played gently with his moustache, and
arranged in the latest style the military knot of his cravat.

Madame de la Roche-Jugan never ceased to deplore confidentially to the
General the unfortunate education of her nieces; while the Baroness,
on her side, lost no opportunity of holding up in bold relief the
emptiness, impertinence, and sulkiness of young Count Sigismund.

In the midst of these honorable conflicts one person, who took no part
in them, attracted the greatest share of Camors's interest; first
for her beauty and afterward for her qualities. This was an orphan of
excellent family, but very poor, of whom Madame de la Roche-Jugan and
Madame Tonnelier had taken joint charge. Mademoiselle Charlotte de Luc
d'Estrelles passed six months of each year with the Countess and six
with the Baroness. She was twenty-five years of age, tall and blonde,
with deep-set eyes under the shadow of sweeping, black lashes. Thick
masses of hair framed her sad but splendid brow; and she was b