wish to see you married—'
'I will spare my family that trouble, sir, if I marry at all, I will choose for myself, which also appears to me reasonable enough. But, in truth, I am very little tempted by that heavy chain, which selfishness and brutality rivet for ever about our necks.'
'It is indecent, madame,' said the princess, 'to speak so lightly of such an institution.'
'Before you, especially, madame, I beg pardon for having shocked your highness! You fear that my independent planner of living will frighten away all wooers; but that is another reason for persisting in my independence, for I detest wooers. I only hope that they may have the very worst opinion of me, and there is no better means of effecting that object, than to appear to live as they live themselves. I rely upon my whims, my follies, my sweet faults, to preserve me from the annoyance of any matrimonial hunting.'
'You will be quite satisfied on that head,' resumed Madame de Saint Dizier, 'if unfortunately the report should gain credit, that you have carried the forgetfulness of all duty and decency, to such a height, as to return home at eight o'clock in the morning. So I am told is the case but I cannot bring myself to believe such an enormity.'
'You are wrong, madame, for it is quite true.'
'So you confess it?' cried the princess.
'I confess all that I do, madame. I came home this morning at eight o'clock.'
'You hear Gentlemen?' ejaculated the princess.
'Oh!' said M. d'Aigrigny, in a bass voice.
'Ah!' said the baron, in a treble key.
'Oh!' muttered the doctor, with a deep sigh.
On hearing these lamentable exclamations, Adrienne seemed about to speak, perhaps to justify herself; but her lip speedily assumed a curl of contempt, which showed that she disdained to stoop to any explanation.
'So it is true,' said the princess. 'Oh, wretched girl, you had accustomed me to be astonished at nothing; but, nevertheless, I doubted the possibility of such conduct. It required your impudent and audacious reply to convince the of the fact.'
'Madame, lying has always appeared to be more impudent than to speak the truth.'
'And where had you been, madame? and for what?'
'Madame,' said Adrienne, interrupting her aunt, 'I never speak false—but neither do I speak more than I choose; and then again, it were cowardice to defend myself from a revolting accusation. Let us say no more about it: your importunities on this head will be altogether vain. To resume: you wish to impose upon me a harsh and humiliating restraint; I wish to quit the house I inhabit, to go and live where I please, at my own fancy. Which of us two will yield, remains to be seen. Now for another matter: this mansion belongs to me! As I am about to leave it, I am indifferent whether you continue to live here or not; but the ground floor is uninhabited. It contains, besides the reception-rooms, two complete sets of apartments; I have let them for some time.'
'Indeed!' said the princess, looking at D'Aigrigny with intense surprise. 'And to whom,' she added ironically, 'have you disposed of them?'
'To three members of my family.'
'What does all this mean?' said Mme. de Saint-Dizier, more and more astonished.
'It means, madame, that I wish to offer a generous hospitality to a young Indian prince, my kinsman on my mother's side. He will arrive in two or three days, and I wish to have the rooms ready to receive him.'
'You hear, gentlemen?' said D'Aigrigny to the doctor and Tripeaud, with an affectation of profound stupor.
'It surpasses all one could imagine!' exclaimed the baron.
'Alas!' observed the doctor, benignantly, 'the impulse is generous in itself—but the mad little head crops out?'
'Excellent!' said the princes. 'I cannot prevent you madame, from announcing the most extravagant designs but it is presumable that you will not stop short in so fair a path. Is that all?'
'Not quite, your highness. I learned this morning, that two of my female relations, also on my mother's side —poor children of fifteen—orphan daughters of Marshal Simon arrived yesterday from a long journey, and are now with the wife of the brave soldier who brought them to France from the depths of Siberia.'
At these words from Adrienne, D'Aigrigny and the princess could not help starting suddenly, and staring at each other with affright, so far were they from expecting that Mdlle. de Cardoville was informed of the coming of Marshal Simon's daughters. This discovery was like a thunder-clap to them.
'You are no doubt astonished at seeing me so well informed,' said Adrienne; 'fortunately, before I have done, I hope to astonish you still more. But to return to these daughters of Marshal Simon: your highness will understand, that it is impossible for me to leave them in charge of the good people who have afforded them a temporary asylum. Though this family is honest, and hard-working, it is not the place for them. I shall go and fetch them hither, and lodge them in apartments on the ground-floor, along with the soldier's wife, who will do very well to take care of them.'
Upon these words, D'Aigrigny and the baron looked at each other, and the baron exclaimed: 'Decidedly, she's out of her head.'
Without a word to Tripeaud, Adrienne continued: 'Marshal Simon cannot fail to arrive at Paris shortly. Your highness perceives how pleasant it will he, to be able to present his daughters to him, and prove that they have been treated as they deserve. To-morrow morning I shall send for milliners and mantua makers, so that they may want for nothing. I desire their surprised father, on his return, to find them every way beautiful. They are pretty, I am told, as angels—but I will endeavor to make little Cupids of them.'
'At last, madame, you must have finished?' said the princess, in a sardonic and deeply irritated tone, whilst D'Aigrigny, calm and cold in appearance, could hardly dissemble his mental anguish.
'Try again!' continued the princess, addressing Adrienne. 'Are there no more relations that you wish to add to this interesting family-group? Really a queen could not act with more magnificence.'
'Right! I wish to give my family a royal reception—such as is due to the son of a king, and the daughters of the Duke de Ligny. It is well to unite other luxuries of life with the luxury of the hospitable heart.'
'The maxim is assuredly generous,' said the princess, becoming more and more agitated; 'it is only a pity that you do not possess the mines of El Dorado to make it practicable.'
'It was on the subject of a mine, said to be a rich one, that I also wished to speak to your highness. Could I find a better opportunity? Though my fortune is already considerable, it is nothing to what may come to our family at any moment. You will perhaps excuse, therefore, what you are pleased to call my royal prodigalities.'
D'Aigrigny's dilemma became momentarily more and more thorny. The affair of the medals was so important, that he had concealed it even from Dr. Baleinier, though he had called in his services to forward immense interests. Neither had Tripeaud been informed of it, for the princess believed that she had destroyed every vestige of those papers of Adrienne's father, which might have put him on the scent of this discovery. The abbe, therefore was not only greatly alarmed that Mdlle. de Cardoville might be informed of this secret, but he trembled lest she should divulge it.
The princess, sharing the alarms of D'Aigrigny, interrupted her niece by exclaiming: 'Madame, there are certain family affairs which ought to be kept secret, and, without exactly understanding to what you allude, I must request you to change the subject.'
'What, madame! are we not here a family party? Is that not sufficiently evident by the somewhat ungracious things that have been here said?'
'No matter, madame! when affairs of interest are concerned, which are more or less disputable, it is perfectly useless to speak of them without the documents laid before every one.'
'And of what have we been speaking this hour, madame, if not of affairs of interest? I really do not understand your surprise and embarrassment.'
'I am neither surprised nor embarrassed, madame; but for the last two hours, you have obliged me to listen to so many new and extravagant things, that a little amaze is very permissible.'
'I beg your highness's pardon, but you are very much embarrassed,' said Adrienne, looking fixedly at her aunt, 'and M. d'Aigrigny also—which confirms certain suspicions that I have not had the time to clear up. Have I then guessed rightly?' she added, after a pause. 'We will see—'
'Madame, I command you to be silent,' cried the princess, no longer mistress of herself.
'Oh, madame!' said Adrienne, 'for a person who has in general so much command of her feelings, you
