p to this remarkably
youthful marriage.

To begin with, in the days of the reign of Louis XVI and the beautiful
young queen, Marie Antoinette, there was no more palatial residence in
all Paris than that which in 1711 came into the possession of the Duc de
Noailles and was thereafter called the Hotel de Noailles.

The finest artists of the day had re-decorated its stately rooms for the
Duc; its walls were hung with costly silk, its picture gallery was
famous even in a city rich in art treasures, even its stables were
fabulously large and far-famed. All that could minister to the joy of
life was to be found in the Hotel de Noailles in those happy days before
the clouds hanging low over France broke in a storm of disaster. Later
in 1768, Madame D'Ayen,--wife of the Duc de Noailles, who was also the
Duc D'Ayen,--mistress of the beautiful home, was leading a happy life
there with her four daughters, to whose education and care she devoted
most of her time.

It was the early afternoon of a day in spring. At three o'clock Madame
D'Ayen had dined with her children in the huge dining-room hung with
dull tapestries and family portraits, then with cheery laughter the
girls had run ahead of Madame to her bedroom, which was very large and
hung with crimson satin damask embroidered in gold, on which the sun
cast a cheerful glow. Louise and Adrienne, the two older girls,--Louise
only a year the elder,--handed their mother her knitting, her books and
her snuff, and then seated themselves, while the younger children
disputed as to which one should have the coveted place nearest Madame.
Comfortably settled at last, the older girls busy with their sewing,
Madame told them the story from the Old Testament of Joseph and his coat
of many colours. When she finished Louise asked question after question,
which her mother patiently answered, but Adrienne drank in the story
told in her mother's vivacious way, in silence. Begged for just one more
story, Madame then told an amusing experience of her convent days, on
which both of the girls offered so many comments that at last Madame
rose, saying rather impatiently:

"You speak in a forward and disobedient manner, such as other girls of
your age would never show to their parent."

Louise looked her mortification, but Adrienne said quietly, "That may
be, Madame, because you allow us to argue and reason with you as other
mothers do not, but you will see that at fifteen we shall be more
obedient