riage you will be handsomer than ever. The pallor of illness has
given you an air of distinction, and on my honor, if my uncle did not
love you so madly, you should be the wife of Colonel Bridau."

Philippe left the room, having dropped this hint into Flore's mind to
waken a vague idea of vengeance which might please the girl, who did,
in fact, feel a sort of happiness as she saw this dreadful being at her
feet. In this scene Philippe repeated, in miniature, that of Richard
III. with the queen he had widowed. The meaning of it is that personal
calculation, hidden under sentiment, has a powerful influence on the
heart, and is able to dissipate even genuine grief. This is how, in
individual life, Nature does that which in works of genius is thought to
be consummate art: she works by self-interest,--the genius of money.

At the beginning of April, 1823, the hall of Jean-Jacques Rouget's house
was the scene of a splendid dinner, given to celebrate the signing of
the marriage contract between Mademoiselle Flore Brazier and the old
bachelor. The guests were Monsieur Heron, the four witnesses, Messieurs
Mignonnet, Carpentier, Hochon, and Goddet, the mayor and the curate,
Agathe Bridau, Madame Hochon, and her friend Madame Borniche, the two
old ladies who laid down the law to the society of Issoudun. The
bride was much impressed by this concession, obtained by Philippe, and
intended by the two ladies as a mark of protection to a repentant woman.
Flore was in dazzling beauty. The curate, who for the last fortnight
had been instructing the ignorant crab-girl, was to allow her, on the
following day, to make her first communion. The marriage was the text
of the following pious article in the "Journal du Cher," published at
Bourges, and in the "Journal de l'Indre," published at Chateauroux:

Issoudun.--The revival of religion is progressing in Berry.
Friends of the Church and all respectable persons in this town
were yesterday witnesses of a marriage ceremony by which a leading
man of property put an end to a scandalous connection, which began
at the time when the authority of religion was overthrown in this
region. This event, due to the enlightened zeal of the clergy of
Issoudun will, we trust, have imitators, and put a stop to
marriages, so-called, which have never been solemnized, and were
only contracted during the disastrous epoch of revolutionary rule.

One remarkable feature of the event to which we all