on pointed out to her
companion new views and new ideas of the world from which she had been
excluded. The intimacy was formed ere Madame Dumesnil could prevent
it, and at the instances of old Jeannette, who begged that
Mademoiselle Pauline might have a friend of her own age--some one to
talk to, besides two old women, she consented to allow the friendship
to continue, provided Jeannette were present at every interview. This
was easily promised, but the nurse's stiff limbs were no match for the
agile supple ones of her young charges. Day by day she loitered
behind, while Pauline and Angela, with their arms entwined, continued
in eager and undisturbed enjoyment of one another's society. Jeannette
remarked a glow upon her young lady's cheek, and a light in her
eye--new charms in her hitherto pale, resigned countenance; and, wiser
than her mistress, concluded that the acquisition of a youthful friend
was fast pouring happiness into her lonely heart.

Three years passed in this pleasant intercourse, when the monotony of
their lives was broken by the arrival of an old friend of Madame
Dumesnil--a Monsieur de Vaissiere. When they had last met, she was in
the morning of her beauty and bliss, he a handsome youth, for whom
many a fair one had sighed, and in vain--as he was still unmarried.
What a change! He could not recognize the lovely young countess, whose
marriage had been attended with so much eclat--so many rejoicings; nor
could she see one vestige of the blooming countenance, the delicate
profile, and the jet-black wavy locks that once shaded his fair, open
brow. But these works of time were soon forgotten, and the desire of
the proud, harsh mother was accomplished when, after a few weeks, M.
de Vaissiere proposed for the hapless Pauline. Unconsciously, but with
the thoughtlessness of selfishness, Madame Dumesnil sacrificed her
child to her prejudices. M. de Vaissiere's opinions and _hers_ were
the same; their admiration of _le vieux systeme_--their fond
recollection of the unfortunate monarch, whose weakness they had never
reproached him with, even in their secret souls--their abhorrence of
Bonaparte--their contempt for _la noblesse Napoleonne_--their upturned
noses at their adopted countrymen, _les Americains_--their want of
faith in hearts and love--the sinecure-ism of young people--their
presumption--their misfortune being that they _were_ young and not
born old--and finally, the coincidence of opinions wherein both l