Upper Chamber. Thus all the French peers are on the lookout for great
heiresses for their sons, wherever they may meet with them. The
necessity in which they find themselves of marrying for money will
certainly exist for at least two centuries.

"Pending such a fortunate accident as you long for--and this
fastidiousness may cost you the best years of your life--your
attractions might work a miracle, for men often marry for love in
these days. When experience lurks behind so sweet a face as yours it
may achieve wonders. In the first place, have you not the gift of
recognizing virtue in the greater or smaller dimensions of a man's
body? This is no small matter! To so wise a young person as you are, I
need not enlarge on all the difficulties of the enterprise. I am sure
that you would never attribute good sense to a stranger because he had
a handsome face, or all the virtues because he had a fine figure. And
I am quite of your mind in thinking that the sons of peers ought to
have an air peculiar to themselves, and perfectly distinctive manners.
Though nowadays no external sign stamps a man of rank, those young men
will have, perhaps, to you the indefinable something that will reveal
it. Then, again, you have your heart well in hand, like a good
horseman who is sure his steed cannot bolt. Luck be with you, my
dear!"

"You are making game of me, papa. Well, I assure you that I would
rather die in Mademoiselle de Conde's convent than not be the wife of
a peer of France."

She slipped out of her father's arms, and proud of being her own
mistress, went off singing the air of Cara non dubitare, in the
"Matrimonio Segreto."