happily married, as she announced that the daughter of some peer of
France had married Monsieur So-and-So with no title to his name. The
Vicomtesse de Fontaine amused herself by eclipsing Emilie in the taste
and magnificence that were conspicuous in her dress, her furniture,
and her carriages. The satirical spirit in which her brothers and
sisters sometimes received the claims avowed by Mademoiselle de
Fontaine roused her to wrath that a perfect hailstorm of sharp sayings
could hardly mitigate. So when the head of the family felt a slight
chill in the King's tacit and precarious friendship, he trembled all
the more because, as a result of her sisters' defiant mockery, his
favorite daughter had never looked so high.

In the midst of these circumstances, and at a moment when this petty
domestic warfare had become serious, the monarch, whose favor Monsieur
de Fontaine still hoped to regain, was attacked by the malady of which
he was to die. The great political chief, who knew so well how to
steer his bark in the midst of tempests, soon succumbed. Certain then
of favors to come, the Comte de Fontaine made every effort to collect
the elite of marrying men about his youngest daughter. Those who may
have tried to solve the difficult problem of settling a haughty and
capricious girl, will understand the trouble taken by the unlucky
father. Such an affair, carried out to the liking of his beloved
child, would worthily crown the career the Count had followed for
these ten years at Paris. From the way in which his family claimed
salaries under every department, it might be compared with the House
of Austria, which, by intermarriage, threatens to pervade Europe. The
old Vendeen was not to be discouraged in bringing forward suitors, so
much had he his daughter's happiness at heart, but nothing could be
more absurd than the way in which the impertinent young thing
pronounced her verdicts and judged the merits of her adorers. It might