good-looking," said the count somewhat coldly.

The baroness having gone out on some errands with Clotilde, Monsieur de
Moras remained alone with Lucan.

"It really seems to me," he said to the latter, "that our poor Julia is
being very harshly treated."

"In what way?"

"Her grandmother speaks of her as of a perverse creature! And what fault
do they find with her after all? Her worship of her father's memory! It is
excessive, I grant; but filial piety, even when exaggerated, is not a
vice, that I know of. Her sentiments are exalted; what does it matter if
they are generous? Is that a reason why she should be devoted to the
infernal divinities and thrust out of the way to be forgotten?"

"But you are very strange, my friend, I assure you," said Lucan. "What is
the matter with you? whom do you mean to blame? You are certainly aware
that Julia proposes taking the vail wholly of her own accord; that her
mother is distressed about it, and that she has spared no effort to
dissuade her from that step. As to myself, I have no reason whatever to be
fond of her; she has caused and is still causing me much grief; but you
know well enough that I have ever been ready to greet her as my daughter,
if she had deigned to return to us."

"Oh! I accuse neither her mother nor yourself, of course; it is the
baroness who irritates me; she is unnatural! Julia is her grandchild after
all, and she rejoices--she positively rejoices--at the prospect of seeing
her a nun!"

"_Ma foi_, I declare to you that I am not far from rejoicing too. The
situation is too painful for Clotilde; it must be brought to an end; and
as I see no other possible solution--"

"But I beg your pardon; there might be another."

"And which?"

"She might marry."

"How likely! and marry--whom, pray?"

The count approached nearer to Lucan, looked him straight in the face, and
smiling with some embarrassment:

"Me!" he said.

"Repeat that!" said Lucan.

"_Mon cher_," rejoined the count, "you see that I am as red as a peony;
spare me. I have wished for a long time to broach that delicate question
to you, but my courage has failed me; since I have found it, at last,
don't deprive me of it."

"My dear friend," said Lucan, "allow me to recover a little first, for I
am falling from the clouds. What! you are in love with Julia?"

"To an extraordinary degree, my friend."

"No! there is something under that; you have discovered this means of
drawing us together,