wearing wooden shoes and a leathern jacket, every one had laughed, but
this did not affect him at all, and in the end people began to term his
dogged obstinacy indomitable perseverance. The gleam that shone from his
hoarded millions imparted a brilliant lustre to his shabby garments. Why
should they waste their pity upon a man who would eventually come into a
gigantic fortune, and have the means of gratifying all his desires?

Mothers, with daughters especially, took a great interest in the young
man, for to get a girl married to the "Young Savage of Champdoce" would
be a feat to be proud of; but unluckily his father watched him with all
the vigilance of a Spanish duenna. But there was a young girl who had
long since secretly formed a design of her own, and this bold-hearted
beauty was Diana de Laurebourg. It was with perfect justice that she
had received the name of the "Belle of Poitiers." She was tall and very
fair, with a dazzling complexion and masses of lustrous hair; but
her eyes gleamed with a suppressed fire, which plainly showed the
constitution of her nature. She had been brought up in a convent, and
her parents, who had wished her to take the veil, had only been induced
to remove her owing to her obstinate refusal to pronounce the vows,
coupled with the earnest entreaties of the lady superior, who was kept
in a constant state of ferment owing to the mutinous conduct of her
pupil. Her father was wealthy, but all the property went over to her
brother, ten years older than herself; and so Diana was portionless,
with the exception of a paltry sum of forty thousand francs.

"My child!" said her father to her the first day of her return, "you
have come back to us once more, and now all you have to do is to
fascinate some gentleman who is your equal in position and who has
plenty of money. If you fail in that, back you go to the convent."