"They are the more terrible because I shall always be obliged to live with my guardian and his family, and if I become convinced beyond a doubt that they have flattered and deceived me merely for their own aggrandisement, I shall feel for them only the bitterest contempt and aversion. "Because I am immensely rich, must I be married only for my money? "Am I doomed to the misery of such a marriage, the indifference, contempt, hatred, perhaps, that are sure to follow when a man is mean enough to wed a woman merely for mercenary motives? "Oh, mother, the thought is so horrible that it haunts me continually. I can not drive it away, strive as I may. "So I have resolved to escape from it at the cost of a dangerous, perhaps fatal experiment. "I have been induced to make this resolve because it seemed to be the only means of satisfying my cruel doubts, not only in regard to others, but myself as well. I must know once for all what I really am, and what I really appear to be, independent of my fortune. "Satisfied on this point, I shall easily be able to distinguish the true from the false. But how am I to ascertain what I am? How am I to discover my precise value, so to speak? Whom can I ask? Who will be frank enough to separate the young girl from the heiress in his valuation? "Besides, would such a verdict, however severe or kindly it might be, satisfy and reassure me entirely? "No, I must have the verdict of several disinterested parties. "But where can I find any such persons? After a great deal of thought, I have decided upon this plan. "Madame Laine was telling me about a week ago of some little entertainments that one of her friends gives every Sunday. I have sought and found, this evening, a way to attend one of these reunions in company with my governess, but ostensibly as a relative of hers, a young orphan who supports herself by her daily toil, like all the other young people who compose the company. "There no one will know me. What they really think of me will be shown conclusively by the reception given me. The rare perfections with which I am endowed--according to those around me--have had such a sudden and irresistible effect, they say, upon them, and upon the husbands they have picked out for me,--in short, I produce such a sensation at all the assemblies I frequent, that I am anxious to see if I shall prove equally irresistible to the young people at Madame Herbaut's modest entertainment. "If I do not, I shall know that I have been basely deceived, and there is little danger that I shall ever endanger my future happiness by fixing my choice upon either of the suitors attracted solely by cupidity. "I am also resolved to find some means of escaping the snares that seem to surround me on every side. "What means I do not know. Alas! alone in the world as I am, in whom can I confide? In whom can I trust?