ure in the Elective
Chamber in presence of the peerage and the court; and had none too much
credit personally. Admiral Kergarouet existed only as the husband of his
wife. Savinien admitted to himself that he had seen orators, men from
the middle classes, or lesser noblemen, become influential personages.
Money was the pivot, the sole means, the only mechanism of a society
which Louis XVIII. had tried to create in the likeness of that of
England.

On his way from the Rue de la Clef to the Rue Croix des Petits-Champs
the young gentleman divulged the upshot of these meditations (which were
certainly in keeping with de Marsay's advice) to the old doctor.

"I ought," he said, "to go into oblivion for three or four years and
seek a career. Perhaps I could make myself a name by writing a book on
statesmanship or morals, or a treatise on some of the great questions of
the day. While I am looking out for a marriage with some young lady who
could make me eligible to the Chamber, I will work hard in silence and
in obscurity."

Studying the young fellow's face with a keen eye, the doctor saw the
serious purpose of a wounded man who was anxious to vindicate himself.
He therefore cordially approved of the scheme.

"My friend," he said, "if you strip off the skin of the old nobility
(which is no longer worn these days) I will undertake, after you have
lived for three or four years in a steady and industrious manner,
to find you a superior young girl, beautiful, amiable, pious, and
possessing from seven to eight hundred thousand francs, who will make
you happy and of whom you will have every reason to be proud,--one whose
only nobility is that of the heart!"

"Ah, doctor!" cried the young man, "there is no longer a nobility in
these days,--nothing but an aristocracy."

"Go and pay your debts of honor and come back here. I shall engage the
coupe of the diligence, for my niece is with me," said the old man.

That evening, at six o'clock, the three travelers started from the Rue
Dauphine. Ursula had put on a veil and did not say a word. Savinien, who
once, in a moment of superficial gallantry, had sent her that kiss
which invaded and conquered her soul like a love-poem, had completely
forgotten the young girl in the hell of his Parisian debts; moreover,
his hopeless love for Emilie de Kergarouet hindered him from bestowing
a thought on a few glances exchanged with a little country girl. He did
not recognize her when the doctor han