After a while, he said very gravely,--

"It was then only, that the idea of marrying her occurred to me."

Daniel had been expecting the fatal word; thus, however heavy the blow
was, it found him prepared. He remained immovable.

This indifference seemed to surprise the count; for he uttered an
expression of discontent, and curtly repeated,--

"Yes, I thought of marrying her. You will say, 'That was a serious
matter.' I know that only too well; and therefore I did not decide
the question in a hurry, but weighed the reasons for and against very
carefully. I am not one of those weak men, you know, I am sure, who can
easily be hoodwinked, and who fancy they alone possess the secret of
perennial youth. No, no, I know myself, and am fully aware, better than
anybody else, that I am approaching maturer years.

"This was, in fact, the first objection that arose in my mind. But then
I answered it triumphantly by the fact that age is not a matter to be
decided by the certificate of baptism, but that we are just as old as we
appear to be. Now, thanks to an exceptionally sober and peaceful life,
of which forty years were spent in the country, to an iron constitution,
and to the extreme care I have always taken of my health, I possess
a--what shall I say?--a vigor which many young men might envy, who can
hardly drag one foot after the other."

He rose as he said this, threw out his chest, straightened his back,
and stretched out his well-shaped leg. Then, when he thought Daniel had
sufficiently admired him, he continued,--

"Now, what of Miss Brandon? You think, perhaps, she is still in her
teens? Far from that! She is at least twenty-five, my dear friend; and,
for a woman, twenty-five years are--ah, ah!"

He smiled ironically, as if to say that to him a woman of twenty-five
appeared an old, a very old woman. Then he went on,--

"Besides, I know how serious her disposition is, and her eminent good
sense. You may rely upon me, when I tell you I have studied her. A
thousand trifles, of no weight in appearance, and unnoticed by herself
in all probability, have told me that she abhors very young men. She has
learnt to appreciate the value of young husbands of thirty, who are all
fire and flame in the honeymoon, and who, six months later, wearied with
pure and tranquil happiness, seek their delights elsewhere. It is not
only of late that I have found out how truly she values what is, after
all, most desirable in this world,--a g