in scorn,
"How pride has fallen!--Lo, the bankrupt merchant!"
My daughter, thou hast saved us!

Pauline. And am lost!

M. Deschap. Come, let me hope that Beauseant's love--

Pauline. His love!
Talk not of love. Love has no thought of self!
Love buys not with the ruthless usurer's gold
The loathsome prostitution of a hand
Without a heart? Love sacrifices all things
To bless the thing it loves! He knows not love.
Father, his love is hate--his hope revenge!
My tears, my anguish, my remorse for falsehood--
These are the joys that he wrings from our despair!

M. Deschap. If thou deem'st thus, reject him! Shame and ruin
Were better than thy misery;--think no more on't.
My sand is wellnigh run--what boots it when
The glass is broken? We'll annul the contract:
And if to-morrow in the prisoner's cell
These aged limbs are laid, why still, my child,
I'll think thou art spared; and wait the Liberal Hour
That lays the beggar by the side of kings!

Pauline, No--no--forgive me! You, my honor'd father,--
You, who so loved, so cherish'd me, whose lips
Never knew one harsh word! I'm not ungrateful;
I am but human!--hush! Now, call the bridegroom--
You see I am prepared--no tears--all calm;
But, father, talk no more of love

M. Deschap. My child,
Tis but one struggle; he is young, rich, noble;
Thy state will rank first 'mid the dames of Lyons;
And when this heart can shelter thee no more,
Thy youth will not be guardianless.

Pauline. I have set
My foot upon the ploughshare--I will pass
The fiery ordeal. [Aside.] Merciful Heaven, support me;
And on the absent wanderer shed the light
Of happier stars--lost evermore to me!

Enter MADAME DESCHAPPELLES, BEAUSEANT, GLAVIS, and Notary.

Mme. Deschap. Why, Pauline, you are quite in deshabille--you ought to
be more alive to the importance of this joyful occasion. We had once
looked higher, it is true; but you see, after all, Monsieur Beauseant's
father was a Marquis, and that's a great comfort. Pedigree and
jointure!--you have them both in Monsieur Beauseant. A young lady
decorously brought up should only have two considerations in her choice
of a husband; first, is his birth honorable? secondly, will his death
be advantageous? All other trifling details should be left to parental
anxiety.

Beau. [approa