s duly explained to him, I did not doubt that he would
willingly give me the hand of his child."

"You did!" cried the marchesa, amazed.

"And," continued the count, imperturbably, as he smoothed, with careless
hand, the snowy plaits of his shirt front,--"and that I should thus have
the happiness of becoming myself the guarantee of my kinsman's loyalty,
the agent for the restoration of his honours, while, in the eyes of the
envious and malignant, I should clear up my own name from all suspicion
that I had wronged him."

"And the emperor consented?"

"Pardieu, my dear sister, what else could his Majesty do? My proposition
smoothed every obstacle, and reconciled policy with mercy. It
remains, therefore, only to find out what has hitherto baffled all
our researches, the retreat of our dear kinsfolk, and to make myself
a welcome lover to the demoiselle. There is some disparity of years, I
own; but--unless your sex and my glass flatter me overmuch--I am still a
match for many a gallant of five-and-twenty."

The count said this with so charming a smile, and looked so
pre-eminently handsome, that he carried off the coxcombry of the words
as gracefully as if they had been spoken by some dazzling hero of the
grand old comedy of Parisian life.

Then interlacing his fingers and lightly leaning his hands, thus
clasped, upon his sister's shoulder, he looked into her face, and said
slowly, "And now, my sister, for some gentle but deserved reproach.
Have you not sadly failed me in the task I imposed on your regard for my
interests? Is it not some years since you first came to England on the
mission of discovering these worthy relations of ours? Did I not entreat
you to seduce into your toils the man whom I new to be my enemy, and who
was indubitably acquainted with our cousin's retreat,--a secret he has
hitherto locked within his bosom? Did you not tell me, that though he
was then in England, you could find no occasion even to meet him, but
that you had obtained the friendship of the statesman to whom I directed
your attention, as his most intimate associate? And yet you, whose
charms are usually so irresistible, learn nothing from the statesman, as
you see nothing of Milord. Nay, baffled and misled, you actually suppose
that the quarry has taken refuge in France. You go thither, you pretend
to search the capital, the provinces, Switzerland, que sais je? All
in vain,--though--foi de gentilhomme--your police cost me dearly. You