"And her little gossip, too, Le Prun's niece, is a charming creature--an exquisitely contrived contrast. By my word, this place deserves its name--is it not truly the Chateau des Anges?" "Who is that young person whom Le Prun is leading towards them? He is the only man I have seen to-night whose dress is perfect; and he looks like a hero of romance." "That?--eh? Why that is the Marquis de Secqville." "What! the horrid man who enslaves us all? I have not seen him for years--how very handsome he is!" "Yes; and I fancy that melancholy air assists him very much in vanquishing the gentle sex. I once had a little vein of that myself." "So you had," murmured the duchess, with a tender smile of memory, and a little sigh. "But is it not a madness of poor Le Prun to present that terrible man to his handsome young wife?" "He is to marry the niece--the affair is concluded. Poor little thing! she looks so frightened; see--a little fluttered pigeon of Venus--it becomes her very much." Meanwhile Le Prun and the marquis were approaching Lucille and Julie, who were seated together close to a window which opened to the floor, and admitted the soft summer air, charged with such sounds and perfumes as might have hovered among the evergreen groves of Calypso's island. "He is coming," said Julie, "he is coming with my uncle." "Who?" asked Lucille, looking coldly on the advancing figures. "My--my fiance, the Marquis de Secqville," whispered Julie, in trembling haste, blushing, and dropping her eyes. "Oh, then, I must observe him carefully," said Lucille, with an arch smile. "Do, and tell me honestly what you think of him." "Ha! little rogue, I see you are not quite so indifferent as you pretend." "My _heart_ is indifferent--but--but he is very handsome--don't you think so?" "Hush! here he is." "I have the happiness, madame, to present Monsieur le Marquis de Secqville, with whom, as you are aware, we are about to have the honor of being nearly allied." So said Monsieur le Prun, with a smile of conjugal affection, which may, or may not, have been genuine. "I was not until now aware of the full extent of the honor and the happiness involved in that alliance," said the marquis, with a glance of respectful admiration. Madame le Prun acknowledged this little speech with a slight bow, and a cold and haughty smile. "You have been in the south lately?" "Yes, madame, with my regiment at Avignon." "So he says," interrupted the fermier-general, with a cunning leer; "but his colonel swears he never saw him there." "Then either you or your colonel must be wrong," said Madame le Prun, drily. "No, no, madame; but Monsieur le Prun likes a jest at my expense." "Not at all," said Le Prun, laughing; "I protest D'Artois, his colonel, vows he has not seen him for six months at least." "They are in a conspiracy to quiz me." "Then you _were_ at Avignon?" "No such thing, I tell you; the fellow was about some mischief--ha! ha! ha!"