h I was unwilling to take, only Madame Rupprecht seemed to consider
me an affected prude if I refused them. Many of these presents consisted
of articles of valuable old jewellery, evidently belonging to his family;
by accepting these I doubled the ties which were formed around me by
circumstances even more than by my own consent. In those days we did not
write letters to absent friends as frequently as is done now, and I had
been unwilling to name him in the few letters that I wrote home. At
length, however, I learned from Madame Rupprecht that she had written to
my father to announce the splendid conquest I had made, and to request
his presence at my betrothal. I started with astonishment. I had not
realized that affairs had gone so far as this. But when she asked me, in
a stern, offended manner, what I had meant by my conduct if I did not
intend to marry Monsieur de la Tourelle--I had received his visits, his
presents, all his various advances without showing any unwillingness or
repugnance--(and it was all true; I had shown no repugnance, though I
did not wish to be married to him,--at least, not so soon)--what could I
do but hang my head, and silently consent to the rapid enunciation of
the only course which now remained for me if I would not be esteemed a
heartless coquette all the rest of my days?

There was some difficulty, which I afterwards learnt that my
sister-in-law had obviated, about my betrothal taking place from home.
My father, and Fritz especially, were for having me return to the mill,
and there be betrothed, and from thence be married. But the Rupprechts
and Monsieur de la Tourelle were equally urgent on the other side; and
Babette was unwilling to have the trouble of the commotion at the mill;
and also, I think, a little disliked the idea of the contrast of my
grander marriage with her own.

So my father and Fritz came over to the betrothal. They were to stay
at an inn in Carlsruhe for a fortnight, at the end of which time the
marriage was to take place. Monsieur de la Tourelle told me he had
business at home, which would oblige him to be absent during the
interval between the two events; and I was very glad of it, for I
did not think that he valued my father and my brother as I could have
wished him to do. He was very polite to them; put on all the soft, grand
manner, which he had rather dropped with me; and complimented us all
round, beginning with my father and Madame Rupprecht, and ending with