und in nature to diminish. Twice have I gone astray, and twice has
Death stretched forth his bony hand to strike my happiness. The first
time, he robbed me of the noblest and most devoted of men; now it is my
turn, the grinning monster tears me from the arms of my poet husband,
with all his beauty and his grace.

"Yet I would not complain. Have I not known in turn two men, each the
very pattern of nobility--one in mind, the other in outward form? In
Felipe, the soul dominated and transformed the body; in Gaston, one
could not say which was supreme--heart, mind, or grace of form. I die
adored--what more could I wish for? Time, perhaps, in which to draw near
the God of whom I may have too little thought. My spirit will take its
flight towards Him, full of love, and with the prayer that some day, in
the world above, He will unite me once more to the two who made a heaven
of my life below. Without them, paradise would be a desert to me.

"To others, my example would be fatal, for mine was no common lot. To
meet a Felipe or a Gaston is more than mortals can expect, and therefore
the doctrine of society in regard to marriage accords with the natural
law. Woman is weak, and in marrying she ought to make an entire
sacrifice of her will to the man who, in return, should lay his
selfishness at her feet. The stir which women of late years have created
by their whining and insubordination is ridiculous, and only shows how
well we deserve the epithet of children, bestowed by philosophers on our
sex."

She continued talking thus in the gentle voice you know so well,
uttering the gravest truths in the prettiest manner, until Gaston
entered, bringing with him his sister-in-law, the two children, and
the English nurse, whom, at Louise's request, he had been to fetch from
Paris.

"Here are the pretty instruments of my torture," she said, as her
nephews approached. "Was not the mistake excusable? What a wonderful
likeness to their uncle!"

She was most friendly to Mme. Gaston the elder and begged that she would
look upon the chalet as her home; in short, she played the hostess to
her in her best de Chaulieu manner, in which no one can rival her.

I wrote at once to the Duc and Duchesse de Chaulieu, the Duc de Rhetore,
and the Duc de Lenoncourt-Givry, as well as to Madeleine. It was time.
Next day, Louise, worn out with so much exertion, was unable to go
out; indeed, she only got up for dinner. In the course of the evening,
Madelein