Vulgar natures, pretentious or egotistic, especially repelled her. The most striking feature of her character was an indomitable will. Her frail bodily envelope concealed a most valiant and resolute heart. No human consideration could influence her decisions when she believed them based on justice and reason. By a singular contrast, notwithstanding her princely birth, the nobility of her heart, her firmness, her mind as lovely as it was cultivated, the princess Julie almost always displayed the most incredible timidity, even among persons who were in nowise her equals. An orphan, and having lived for seven years with Madame de Rohan-Soubise, Mlle. de Soissons felt no sympathy with her relative. All the secrets of her heart were reserved for Martha, her nurse, a simple, good-hearted creature who had brought her up, and who loved her with the blind tenderness of a mother. For five years Mlle. de Soissons had persistently refused the most brilliant offers of marriage from persons of suitable birth and fortune; for five years she had loved the Marquis of Létorière. Her singularly good heart, her rather romantic temperament, her independent spirit, had not remained insensible to the history of misfortunes so courageously borne by that young gentleman. When Jerome Sicard went to execute Létorière's commission, after having carried him gratuitously to Palais Marchand, it will be remembered that a man getting out of the carriage had seen Dame Landry in the height of her wrath against the Marquis. Curious to learn the termination of the affair, this man, the steward of Madame Rohan-Soubise, returning several days after to The Golden Scissors, found Dame Landry full of enthusiasm for her debtor. The steward described this singular drama to Dame Martha, Mlle. de Soisson's nurse, relating all the details. Dame Martha, in turn, communicated them to the princess Julie. Such was the first cause of the lively interest which the latter soon felt for M. de Létorière. During the illness of the young Marquis, Julie often sent her faithful nurse, well disguised in her long black cloak, to get tidings of Dominique's pupil. When Létorière was convalescent, Dame Martha was deputed to convey secretly the basket of flowers and fruit, of which mention has been made, without allowing any one to guess whence the gift came, and afterwards to find out the day on which he would be able to go out; the princess desired very much to see this enchanter who charmed the most pedantic regent of the college, the most rebellious wife of a tailor, and the coarsest of coachmen. As a woman of her rank could go out neither alone nor on foot, Martha endeavored to ascertain if there were not, in the Rue St. Florentin, some shop where she could lie concealed, to watch this young invalid, under the pretence of making purchases.