and which his
father enjoined upon him. The old gentleman considered that to know the
art of fencing and the use of arms, to ride well on horseback, to play
tennis, to acquire good manners,--in short, to possess all the frivolous
accomplishments of the old nobility,--made a young man of the present
day a finished gentleman. Accordingly, Paul took a fencing-lesson every
morning, went to the riding-school, and practised in a pistol-gallery.
The rest of his time was spent in reading novels, for his father would
never have allowed the more abstruse studies now considered necessary to
finish an education.

So monotonous a life would soon have killed the poor youth if the death
of the old man had not delivered him from this tyranny at the moment
when it was becoming intolerable. Paul found himself in possession of
considerable capital, accumulated by his father's avarice, together with
landed estates in the best possible condition. But he now held Bordeaux
in horror; neither did he like Lanstrac, where his father had taken him
to spend the summers, employing his whole time from morning till night
in hunting.

As soon as the estate was fairly settled, the young heir, eager for
enjoyment, bought consols with his capital, left the management of the
landed property to old Mathias, his father's notary, and spent the next
six years away from Bordeaux. At first he was attached to the French
embassy at Naples; after that he was secretary of legation at Madrid,
and then in London,--making in this way the tour of Europe.

After seeing the world and life, after losing several illusions, after
dissipating all the loose capital which his father had amassed, there
came a time when, in order to continue his way of life, Paul was forced
to draw upon the territorial revenues which his notary was laying by. At
this critical moment, seized by one of the so-called virtuous impulses,
he determined to leave Paris, return to Bordeaux, regulate his affairs,
lead the life of a country gentleman at Lanstrac, improve his property,
marry, and become, in the end, a deputy.

Paul was a count; nobility was once more of matrimonial value; he could,
and he ought to make a good marriage. While many women desire a title,
many others like to marry a man to whom a knowledge of life is familiar.
Now Paul had acquired, in exchange for the sum of seven hundred thousand
francs squandered in six years, that possession, which cannot be bought
and is practically o