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" Are you speaking quite in earnest about it, mamma? "
'(Mi, yes, my dear, as earnestly as possible."
"But, mamma, you did say, the day before tli:it yesterday, 1
was a great deal too youug to be married."
"Oh, that is what one always says when there is nothing act-
ually in question about a girl's marriage, and no one has yet proposed
for her; but people do not throw away the chance of a
good match on the score of a person's youth. You are very
difficult to please if you are not delighted with this proposal.
Artemon Richer is the best parti and the handsomest man in
this place."
Rose said nothing. She knew her mother's partiality for the
handsome Artemon, and felt that nothing she could say would
be understood. She sat silently listening to Madame Lescalle's
comments on her extraordinary good luck till some visitors were
announced; then hastily rising, she threw hat, covered with
all."
" Well. I know him, my dear, and that is quite enough. You
and he will have plenty of time to get acquainted when you are
married. But you have seen him; you know what a good-look-
ing fellow he is. That will do for the present, and 1 suppose
he admires my little Rose as he has proposed for her."
"Perhaps it is his father who wants him to marry me."
"Oh, dear, no. Rosette; a man of thirty is not like a girl of
seventeen."
Rose sighed deeply, and her father went on saying: "I would
not on any account have forced upon my daughter a disagreeable
husband; and if Artemon had not been good looking and young,
rich and well-connected, if he had not been just the sort of man
a girl would like to marry, 1 should not have accepted him for
my little Rose; but this match is everything I could desire.
What! are you not delighted, my love? Why don't you thank
your papa and kiss him, instead of standing there looking as
doleful as if you were not the luckiest of girls? "
"I.am so surprised, papa, and I really hardly know if I am
awake or dreaming. The idea of my being married seems so
strange and so soon, too! I had never thought about it at all."
" It is much better to be taken by surprise, I can tell you, than
to be ten years looking out for a husband, as the Demoiselles
Arnoux have done, and end by not finding one and being an old
maid. I can understand your surprise, Rosette; but after Artemon's
first visit you will be enchanted."
"Oh no, papa, I am sure I shall not like him;" and in saying
tli^ IJose, who had been struggling for some time with her tears,
hid her face in her hands, and began to sob.
" "
What is all this nonsense? M. Lescalle sternly said.
"
Are we going to play the fool and turn our back on the best
match in the neighborhood? Oh, I see how it is. We dreamed
at school of some fine fairy prince, and we mean to wait for
him."
This sort of banter Rose could not stand. . All she had meant
to say went out of her head. She felt herself helpless against
what she felt would be her father's invincible will, and her courage
gave way. She rushed out of the study and locked herself up
in her room, wilhout listening to her father's consoling assurance
that she was to leave it to him, and that he knew much better
if what would be for her happiness.
A; ]ii:-;hl well have been expected. Host's tears did not in tho
'ITect his plans. II' did not nmke her girlish objections
even a subject of thought; and as he went the next day to La
mi-: MJTM;} '8 21
it Lescalle felt in a most agreeable frame of
mind.
Anv one who had seen him walking slowly, with hi
hind hi.s hack, enjoying the pleasant, rum
brec/.c I'
tin- i-ea mid the
perfume' of the wild thyme, and had observed the affable way in
which he nodded to the persons he met, smiled on the children,
and called the dogs by familiar names, would have said, "There
goes a happy individual." And what was giving such joy to
that man, that it seemed to ooze out of every pore of his com-
fortable plump body, and to glitter in his little sharp eyes?
Well, he had an only child a lovely, innocent girl, full of the
gaiety which is so attractive at that age. He had her in his
home, under his roof, near him from morning to night, like a
bird in spirits, like a flower in beauty and sweetness; and what
made him so very happy was that he was going to get rid of her.
Was he on that account a hard-hearted man or a had father?
By no means. He was like an innumerable number of fathers.
In many families a daughter is considered as an inconvenience.
flowers, into a corner, and went straight to her father's study.
She found him seated at his bureau, with his head on his hand.
He was calculating all the advantages he expected to derive from
a connection with the Richers de Montlouis.
Rose tried to steady her voice, and said", " Dear papa, mamma
"
has just told me
"Oh, indeed! So you have heard, little girl, of the conquest
you have made. Well, it is of some use to be If she marries at eighteen
pretty."
"
"And so M. Artemon
"
Will be your husband, little lady, in three weeks."
"
Not so soon as that, papa, I hope. I don't know him at
it is a good thing: if at sixteen or
seventeen, still better. To see her unhappy in her husband's
house is much less of an annoyance than to have her happy at
home unmarried.
CHAPTER VIII.
SECOND THOUGHTS.
M. DE VEDELLES was immediately struck with his visitor's
beaming expression of countenance, and something in it which
seemed to provoke an interrogatory remark.
After requesting him to be seated, the Count said, " You
seem in excellent spirits this morning, M. Lescalle? "
" Ah, well! I am not at all apt to be melancholy, M. le Gomte,
and I have indeed no reason to complain. Things are not going
badly with me, as times go."
" Your business is increasing very much, I hear."
" It increases every day, and I have clients in every corner of
the department."
"
Yes; your acquaintance must be very extensive. I suppose
you know most of the families in this neighborhood? "
"A geat many of them not to say all."
" You saw by my letter, that I will agree to let the East Farm,
at his own terms, to your protege, Jean Benard."
"Indeed I did, M. le Comte, and I am delighted to find that
you have arrived at this decision. I have known Benard for
twenty years, and I can assure you that he is a good sort of a
man, and a good farmer too. He will do justice to your land."
"
I am always inclined to take your advice on such matters,
because you have so much knowledge of business, and are es-
pecially conversant with questions of land in this locality, of
which I am myself quite ignorant."
"Without boasting, I may say, M. le Comte, that few men
have applied themselves with as much attention as I have done
to all the details regarding the management of property in this
part of the country."
" But I suspect, M. Lescalle, that you are not only experienced
in matters of this description, but that you have a pretty quick
eye as to all sorts of affairs, and that you could give me judicious
advice on a very delicate matter."
" Well, M. le Comte, 1 will not .deny that I am often consulted
by my neighbors on subjects which require considerable tact and
discretion."
" That is just what I meant. You are a person to whom one
can speak quite confidentially."
" I always go on the principle that a notary is a sort of lay con-
fessor."
" I felt sure that was the case, and I am going to speak to you
with entire confidence. You know that I have two sons? "
"
Yi> ; though
I only know M. Jacques a very charming
young man in every respect."
"He is also remarkably clever, and has already distinguished