ng boundless wealth, that is my destiny. It is not so easy
as one may suppose. I have already run through something, and--if my
mother had not stopped me! but I am quite ready to begin again. Oh,
how happy that girl would be with me! I would create around her the
existence of a fairy queen. In all her luxury she would feel the taste,
the art, and the skill of her husband. I would pass my life in adoring
her, in displaying her beauty, in petting her, in bearing her triumphant
through the world. I would study her beauty in order to give it the
frame that best suited it. 'If he were not there,' she would say, 'I
should not be so beautiful, so dazzling.' I should know not only how to
love her, but how to amuse her. She would have something for her money,
she would have love and pleasure. Come, Jean, do a good action, take me
to Mrs. Scott's to-day."

"I cannot, I assure you."

"Well, then, in ten days; but I give you fair notice, I shall install
myself at Longueval, and shall not move. In the first place it
would please my mother; she is still a little prejudiced against the
Americans. She says that she shall arrange not to see them, but I know
my mother. Some day, when I shall go home in the evening and tell
her: 'Mother, I have won the-heart of a charming little person who is
burdened with a capital of twenty millions--they exaggerate when they
talk of hundreds of millions. You know these are the correct figures,
and they are enough for me. That evening, then, my mother will be
delighted, because, in her heart, what is it she desires for me? What
all good mothers desire for their sons--a good marriage, or a discreet
liaison with some one in society. At Longueval I find these two
essentials, and I will accommodate myself very willingly to either.
You will have the kindness to warn me in ten days--you will let me know
which of the two you abandon to me, Mrs. Scott or Miss Percival?"

"You are mad, you are quite mad! I do not, I never shall think--"

"Listen, Jean. You are wisdom personified; you may say and do as you
like, but remember what I say to you, Jean, you will fall in love in
that house."

"I do not believe it," replied Jean, laughing.

"But I am absolutely sure of it. Good-by. I leave you to your duties."

That morning Jean was perfectly sincere. He had slept very well the
previous night; the second interview with the two sisters had, as if by
enchantment, dissipated the slight trouble which had agitated hi