ble to choose Ursula Mirouet for my wife; I could go to
her and say that I loved her; but a young girl is false to herself if
she asks the love of the man she loves. A woman has not the right which
men have to seek the accomplishment of her hopes in open day. Modesty is
to her--above all to you, my Ursula,--the insurmountable barrier which
protects the secrets of her heart. Your hesitation in confiding to me
these first emotions shows me you would suffer cruel torture rather than
admit to Savinien--"

"Oh, yes!" she said.

"But, my child, you must do more. You must repress these feelings; you
must forget them."

"Why?"

"Because, my darling, you must love only the man you marry; and, even if
Monsieur Savinien de Portenduere loved you--"

"I never thought of it."

"But listen: even if he loved you, even if his mother asked me to
give him your hand, I should not consent to the marriage until I had
subjected him to a long and thorough probation. His conduct has been
such as to make families distrust him and to put obstacles between
himself and heiresses which cannot be easily overcome."

A soft smile came in place of tears on Ursula's sweet face as she said,
"Then poverty is good sometimes."

The doctor could find no answer to such innocence.

"What has he done, godfather?" she asked.

"In two years, my treasure, he has incurred one hundred and twenty
thousand francs of debt. He has had the folly to get himself locked up
in Saint-Pelagie, the debtor's prison; an impropriety which will always
be, in these days, a discredit to him. A spendthrift who is willing to
plunge his poor mother into poverty and distress might cause his wife,
as your poor father did, to die of despair."

"Don't you think he will do better?" she asked.

"If his mother pays his debts he will be penniless, and I don't know a
worse punishment than to be a nobleman without means."

This answer made Ursula thoughtful; she dried her tears, and said:--

"If you can save him, save him, godfather; that service will give you a
right to advise him; you can remonstrate--"

"Yes," said the doctor, imitating her, "and then he can come here, and
the old lady will come here, and we shall see them, and--"

"I was thinking only of him," said Ursula, blushing.

"Don't think of him, my child; it would be folly," said the doctor
gravely. "Madame de Portenduere, who was a Kergarouet, would never
consent, even if she had to live on three hundred francs a