e to recognize
the tones of a noble soul beside her. The caprices produced by physical
infirmities are equally to be met with in the mental and moral regions.

This good creature, who grieved at making her yearly preserves for no
one but her uncle and herself, was becoming almost ridiculous. Those who
felt a sympathy for her on account of her good qualities, and others
on account of her defects, now made fun of her abortive marriages.
More than one conversation was based on what would become of so fine
a property, together with the old maid's savings and her uncle's
inheritance. For some time past she had been suspected of being au fond,
in spite of appearances, an "original." In the provinces it was not
permissible to be original: being original means having ideas that are
not understood by others; the provinces demand equality of mind as well
as equality of manners and customs.

The marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon seemed, after 1804, a thing so
problematical that the saying "married like Mademoiselle Cormon" became
proverbial in Alencon as applied to ridiculous failures. Surely the
sarcastic mood must be an imperative need in France, that so excellent
a woman should excite the laughter of Alencon. Not only did she
receive the whole society of the place at her house, not only was she
charitable, pious, incapable of saying an unkind thing, but she was
fully in accord with the spirit of the place and the habits and customs
of the inhabitants, who liked her as the symbol of their lives; she was
absolutely inlaid into the ways of the provinces; she had never
quitted them; she imbibed all their prejudices; she espoused all their
interests; she adored them.

In spite of her income of eighteen thousand francs from landed property,
a very considerable fortune in the provinces, she lived on a footing
with families who were less rich. When she went to her country-place at
Prebaudet, she drove there in an old wicker carriole, hung on two straps
of white leather, drawn by a wheezy mare, and scarcely protected by two
leather curtains rusty with age. This carriole, known to all the town,
was cared for by Jacquelin as though it were the finest coupe in all
Paris. Mademoiselle valued it; she had used it for twelve years,--a fact
to which she called attention with the triumphant joy of happy avarice.
Most of the inhabitants of the town were grateful to Mademoiselle Cormon
for not humiliating them by the luxury she could have displaye