t I know of you, your blind attachment to duty, your rare
gifts, your love of children, your affection for me, would help to make
my death--I dare not say easy--but at least less bitter.

The compact I have thus made with myself adds a vague terror to the
solemnity of my marriage ceremony. For this reason I wish to have no one
whom I know present, and it will be performed in secret. Let my heart
fail me if it will, at least I shall not read anxiety in your dear eyes,
and I alone shall know that this new marriage-contract which I sign may
be my death warrant.

I shall not refer again to this agreement entered into between my
present self and the self I am to be. I have confided it to you in
order that you might know the full extent of your responsibilities. In
marrying I retain full control of my property; and Gaston, while aware
that I have enough to secure a comfortable life for both of us, is
ignorant of its amount. Within twenty-four hours I shall dispose of it
as I please; and in order to save him from a humiliating position, I
shall have stock, bringing in twelve thousand francs a year, assigned
to him. He will find this in his desk on the eve of our wedding. If
he declined to accept, I should break off the whole thing. I had to
threaten a rupture to get his permission to pay his debts.

This long confession has tired me. I shall finish it the day after
to-morrow; I have to spend to-morrow in the country.

October 20th.

I will tell you now the steps I have taken to insure secrecy. My object
has been to ward off every possible incitement to my ever-wakeful
jealousy, in imitation of the Italian princess, who, like a lioness
rushing on her prey, carried it off to some Swiss town to devour in
peace. And I confide my plans to you because I have another favor to
beg; namely, that you will respect our solitude and never come to see us
uninvited.

Two years ago I purchased a small property overlooking the ponds of
Ville d'Avray, on the road to Versailles. It consists of twenty acres
of meadow land, the skirts of a wood, and a fine fruit garden. Below
the meadows the land has been excavated so as to make a lakelet of about
three acres in extent, with a charming little island in the middle. The
small valley is shut in by two graceful, thickly-wooded slopes, where
rise delicious springs that water my park by means of channels cleverly
disposed by my architect. Finally, they fall into the royal ponds,
glimpses of which