Madame l'Etiquette. For a moment it seemed as if
a slight mounting of the blood to her wrinkled cheeks was visible. In
the next her features resumed their stiffness, and she answered, "Tush!
that is the business of citizenesses."

"You too have had your dream; I have heard of it," Cyrene persisted.
"Women are women, whatever their sphere."

"Say illusion, perhaps, not dream; but the subject must cease. What do
you want of me after this very _malapropos_ preface?"

"I ask you to consent to our immediate marriage," Cyrene said with
desperate directness, and tremblingly taking the chair which Germain
proffered, sat down with white face, watching Madame de Noailles
anxiously.

The latter did not reply.

"Grand-aunt," pled the young woman, "you have felt like us in your day,
the longing for a home, a sweet refuge from the wretchedness of life.
You had a lover to make you feel how sweet it might have been."

"Get these silly ideas out of your head," responded Madame l'Etiquette,
ignoring Lecour, but speaking in a not unkindly manner. "Your rank
demands an _establishment_, not a home. Monsieur understands that his
position and yours are very different, and that two things at least are
necessary in order to make your marriage possible--his standing as a
Bodyguard, and a complete establishment. The riotous condition of his
province makes the latter very dubious. You understand this, Monsieur de
Lincy?"

"It must be admitted, Madame la Marechale," Lecour said sorrowfully.

"You have some sense, I observe."

"But I can live without an establishment. A position is open to Germain
in the provinces as Commandant of a school," Cyrene exclaimed.

Madame uttered an exclamation so energetic, and she rose so fiercely
from her chair that Cyrene stopped in dismay.

"Saints of heaven!" went on the Marechale, "is the family on the brink
of a catastrophe? Can the Noailles, the Court, and the Crown afford to
allow a Montmorency to annihilate herself? How dare you, forgetful of
your relatives, your position, your descent from a hundred kings,
advance such a proposal to the Chief Lady of Honour. I am something,
Madame, and I intend to be considered, and to see that your family shall
be considered. A pretty idea this, of rustic innocence and rural
retirement, of straw bonnets and shepherding, of the new school to which
you belong and who are the enemies of everything permanent. You are
destroying customs to make way for theories, mann