single all her life.

When the journey to London, to which I have already alluded, took place,
Ida accompanied her father and sister. If she had consulted her own
tastes, she would have remained in the country; but Rosamond declared
that she should feel quite lost and helpless twenty times a day, in
town, without her sister. It was in the nature of Ida to sacrifice
herself to any one whom she loved, on the smallest occasions as well
as the greatest. Her affection was as intuitively ready to sanctify
Rosamond's slightest caprices as to excuse Rosamond's most thoughtless
faults. So she went to London cheerfully, to witness with pride all the
little triumphs won by her sister's beauty; to hear, and never tire of
hearing, all that admiring friends could say in her sister's praise.

At the end of the season Mr. Welwyn and his daughters returned for a
short time to the country; then left home again to spend the latter part
of the autumn and the beginning of the winter in Paris.

They took with them excellent letters of introduction, and saw a great
deal of the best society in Paris, foreign as well as English. At one of
the first of the evening parties which they attended, the general topic
of conversation was the conduct of a certain French nobleman, the Baron
Franval, who had returned to his native country after a long absence,
and who was spoken of in terms of high eulogy by the majority of the
guests present. The history of who Franval was, and of what he had
done, was readily communicated to Mr. Welwyn and his daughters, and was
briefly this:

The baron inherited little from his ancestors besides his high rank
and his ancient pedigree. On the death of his parents, he and his
two unmarried sisters (their only surviving children) found the small
territorial property of the Franvals, in Normandy, barely productive
enough to afford a comfortable subsistence for the three. The baron,
then a young man of three-and-twenty endeavored to obtain such military
or civil employment as might become his rank; but, although the Bourbons
were at that time restored to the throne of France, his efforts were
ineffectual. Either his interest at court was bad, or secret enemies
were at work to oppose his advancement. He failed to obtain even the
slightest favor; and, irritated by undeserved neglect, resolved to leave
France, and seek occupation for his energies in foreign countries, where
his rank would be no bar to his bettering his fort