the word
would have been easy--but there was a bar between them: the Demoiselle
de Surcourt was of illegitimate birth. Love, however, laughed at the
obstruction. The Sieur Lebrun hurried to the house of De la Motte;
demanded the hand of the lady he loved; and the Demoiselle de Surcourt
became his wife. The marriage contract will prove his disinterestedness.
The portion he obtained was small; consisting but of eighteen hundred
francs a-year. The Sieur Lebrun, secretary of the domains of the Prince
de Conti, with two thousand livres a-year, might have looked higher--at
all events he might have bargained for a settlement in his favour; but,
so far from that, he made no claim upon her fortune, but settled all he
had upon her. Is this the man whom Madame Lebrun accuses of having
married her from interested motives?

Alas, sometimes, for the marriages which have been preceded by too
violent a love!--illusion gives place to sad reality. The boy and girl
love without having learned to know each other; and cease to love when
that knowledge comes! But the attachment of the Sieur and Madame Lebrun
experienced no revolution of the kind. Fourteen years passed away in
uninterrupted union. Though converted into a husband, the Sieur Lebrun
did not cease to be Misis; the wedded De Surcourt continued to be
"Fanny"--charming names--ingenious disguises--chosen by two lovers to
perpetuate the memory of the times of courtship!

More than three hundred letters, written by Madame Lebrun during that
time, were in the hands of her husband--irrefragable proofs of their
mutual affection; but she has found means to get away the greater part
of them; enough, however, remain to make his justification complete.
Never was a union more harmonious--a wife more petted and indulged. It
seemed that felicity, resting on such foundations, could never be
disturbed; but one single moment was sufficient to overturn the work of
seventeen years!

The Sieur and Madame Lebrun had been intimate for some years with a
certain Sieur Grimod, who held an appointment from the king, and lived
as if his office was of great value. The Sieur Lebrun is not astonished
that his wife was pleased with the acquaintance, for he prized it very
highly himself; but a time came when he thought it better for all
parties that it should cease. The Sieur Lebrun believes in his wife's
virtue as in his own existence. What! if he had _not_ that belief, would
he be here to reclaim her by cou