The huge fireplaces, all sheathed in cast-iron at the back, filled the vast apartments with an intense heat. The former hangings on the walls were replaced by felt paper of extraordinary thickness and beauty; instead of our pretty Persian curtains, which quiver in the draughts from the windows, were heavy folds of damask, or, in more modest dwellings, of wadded silk, that lasted fifty years. On the sandstone floors of corridors and living-rooms were rugs of a new kind, made of wool, cotton, flax and hemp. Very handsome marquetry floors were made in those days, and in the central provinces people ate from lovely Nevers porcelain, while the sideboards were resplendent with those curious goblets of colored glass, used only on grand occasions, and representing fanciful monuments, plants, vessels or animals. Thus, despite the modest appearance of the exterior of the wing set aside for the apartments of the masters--for the nobles had already ceased to live near the roofs of their old feudal donjons--Monsieur d'Alvimar found an attractive interior, neat and not unrefined, which denoted genuine ease, at least, if not great wealth. La Motte-Seuilly had passed, by the marriage of Louis Borgia, into the family of La Trémouille, to which Monsieur de Beuvre belonged through his mother. He was a rough and gallant gentleman, who never hesitated to promulgate his opinions and beliefs. His only daughter, Lauriane, had married, at the age of twelve, her cousin Hélyon de Beuvre, aged sixteen. The two children had been kept apart, with the greater ease in that the province was suddenly stirred by a commotion in which Messieurs de Beuvre felt that they were in duty bound to take part. They left La Motte on the very day of the marriage, to go to the succor of the Duchesse de Nevers, who had declared for the Prince de Condé, and who was besieged in her good city by Monsieur de Montigny--François de la Grange. While making a bold attempt to force his way into Nevers, under the eyes of the Catholics, young Hélyon was killed. On his return from that campaign, therefore, Monsieur de Beuvre had the painful task of informing his darling daughter that she had passed without transition from the state of a virgin to that of a widow. Lauriane[6] wept bitterly for her young cousin. But can a maiden weep incessantly at twelve years of age? And then her father gave her such a lovely doll!--a doll with a dress of cloth of silver, and red velvet slippers pinked like a crab's tail! And then, when she was fourteen, he gave her such a pretty little horse, from Monsieur le Prince's own stud! And then, too, Lauriane, who, at the time of her marriage, was only a pale, slender chit, became at fifteen a dainty blonde, so graceful and rosy and lovable, that there was no great danger that she would remain a widow.