ce after the revolution of
July. This marriage of ambition on du Tillet's part was brought about
by his agreeing to sign an acknowledgment in the marriage contract of a
dowry not received, equal to that of her elder sister, who was married
to Comte Felix de Vandenesse. On the other hand, the Granvilles obtained
the alliance with de Vandenesse by the largeness of the "dot." Thus the
bank repaired the breach made in the pocket of the magistracy by rank.
Could the Comte de Vandenesse have seen himself, three years later, the
brother-in-law of a Sieur Ferdinand DU Tillet, so-called, he might not
have married his wife; but what man of rank in 1828 foresaw the strange
upheavals which the year 1830 was destined to produce in the political
condition, the fortunes, and the customs of France? Had any one
predicted to Comte Felix de Vandenesse that his head would lose the
coronet of a peer, and that of his father-in-law acquire one, he would
have thought his informant a lunatic.

Bending forward on one of those low chairs then called "chaffeuses," in
the attitude of a listener, Madame du Tillet was pressing to her bosom
with maternal tenderness, and occasionally kissing, the hand of her
sister, Madame Felix de Vandenesse. Society added the baptismal name
to the surname, in order to distinguish the countess from her
sister-in-law, the Marquise Charles de Vandenesse, wife of the former
ambassador, who had married the widow of the Comte de Kergarouet,
Mademoiselle Emilie de Fontaine.

Half lying on a sofa, her handkerchief in the other hand, her breathing
choked by repressed sobs, and with tearful eyes, the countess had been
making confidences such as are made only from sister to sister when
two sisters love each other; and these two sisters did love each other
tenderly. We live in days when sisters married into such antagonist
spheres can very well not love each other, and therefore the historian
is bound to relate the reasons of this tender affection, preserved
without spot or jar in spite of their husbands' contempt for each other
and their own social disunion. A rapid glance at their childhood will
explain the situation.

Brought up in a gloomy house in the Marais, by a woman of narrow mind,
a "devote" who, being sustained by a sense of duty (sacred phrase!), had
fulfilled her tasks as a mother religiously, Marie-Angelique and Marie
Eugenie de Granville reached the period of their marriage--the first at
eighteen, the second at