FRENCH NOVELISTS. 525 



need of such precaution in telling you that the individual for whom we 

 plead is the Count de Juviessy.' 



<< ' Why that exclamation ? Is he not a man of the most distinguished 

 merit, and capable of aspiring to the very highest rank ?' 



" ( Granted/ said Salicetta, with caution, while her eyes were fixed upon 

 the ground : ' but our ages are different ; he is quite gray/ 



<f ( His experience will be of use to you in the world ; and then he is not 

 forty.' 



" ' And I am eighteen. To be brief, I don't love him/ 



" < But you will/ 



" ' Never never !' 



" ' My dear Salicetta, do not pronounce these irrevocable words j God 

 only can say always and never/ 



" Salicetta clasped her hands and remained silent ; then suddenly draw- 

 ing forth a miniature which hung from a gold chain about her neck, she 

 gazed upon it with overflowing eyes it was the portrait of her father. 

 ' Oh, if you were living,' exclaimed she, in the accents of grief, ' I should 

 be spared this persecution ; you would not ask me to marry against my 

 inclination. Thou best of fathers, I shall never cease to lament your 

 death: until this moment I never knew the full extent of my loss. Oh, 

 father, see how unhappy your poor daughter is !' Her lips were rivetted 

 to the miniature ; the Count and Countess were moved : the image of her 

 father seemed to have inspired her with new energy. 



" ' No, Madam/ s"aid she, rising, ' the man who has not my heart shall 

 never have my hand. The Count de Juviessy has not inspired me with 

 the slightest particle of affection : let him cease to importune me, or I 

 shall consider him as nothing better than one of those vile fortune-hunters, 

 who persecute poor girls who have the misfortune to be rich, and who can 

 never know if they are wedded for true love, as my father did my mother. 

 Oh, they were indeed happy ! Let me but be loved like her, and, like her, 

 die young ! Go, I pray you, proclaim to the world that I have become 

 suddenly poor ; invent some tale that may allow me the prospect of being 

 loved for myself, that I may cease to think that it is the vile thirst of gold 

 which draws around me those fawning things whose base hypocrisy is so 

 tiresome and disgusting.' 



" '' All this is very romantic, Salicetta.' 



{ ' I have never read romances ; my confessor forbids it : but I can un- 

 derstand my heart. Tell Juviessy, that to proceed farther is to expose 

 himself to the contempt of a woman.'" 



After this explosion the Count de Naviers repairs to the first 

 Consul to announce that the matrimonial ultimatum was rejected, 

 while the Countess bears the tidings to Juviessy. The door of Buo- 

 naparte's cabinet was thrown open ; a nervous sensation, like elec- 

 tricity, ran along the crowd ; Buonaparte seemed agitated ; he ad- 

 vanced with a quick step to the Count de Naviers, and said, in a 

 voice as sharp as the point of a sword: 



<(< I never busy myself with the details of those matters: but it's all 

 settled, is it not ?' 



" ' Yes, General/ replied the heroic Count, trembling as if in a palsy fit. 

 " ' 'T\s well/ said Buonaparte, retiring/ " 



Let us now see the effect produced upon Juviessy. He rose from 

 his seat, and walked up the room " If the Consul," said he, "finds out 

 that the Count had not the courage to say no to him, he will have a 

 sad opinion of him ; all will be lost. On the other hand Salicetta pre- 

 tends she does not love me. Well, here is room for a bold and subtle 



