"Apropos, princess, you who know everything, you who are a true cosmopolitan, have you ever heard of a mysterious personage who calls himself Count Abel Larinski?""Not that I am aware of, my dear, although his name may not be absolutely unknown to me.""Search among your reminiscences; you must have encountered him somewhere; you have visited all the countries of the world--""Of the habitable world," she interposed; "but according to my especial point of view Siberia scarcely can be called so, and it is there, if I mistake not, that your Count Larinski must have been sent.""Would to heaven!-- Perhaps there was question of procuring this little pleasure for his father; but, unfortunately, he took the precaution to emigrate to America.The inconvenience of America is, that people can return from there, for my Larinski has returned, and it is that that grieves me.""What has he done to you?" inquired the princess pinching the ears of the dog who was slumbering in her lap.
"I spoke to you at Ostend about my goddaughter Mlle.Moriaz, who is an adorable creature.I proposed to marry her to my nephew, M.Langis, a most highly accomplished young man.This Larinski came suddenly on the scene, he cast a charm over the child, and he will marry her.""What a pity! Is he handsome?"
"Yes; that, to tell the truth, is his sole merit.""It is merit sufficient," replied the princess, whose gray eyes twinkled as she spoke."There is nothing certain but a man's beauty;all else is open to discussion."
"Pray, allow me to consider matters from a more matter-of-fact point of view,: said Mme.de Lorcy."Also I may as well confide to you my whole perplexity: I suspect Count Larinski of being neither a true Larinski nor a true count; I would stake my life that the Larinskis are all dead, and that this man is some adventurer.""You will end by interesting me," rejoined the princess."Do not speak too severely of adventurers, however; they are one of the most curious varieties of the human family.Let your goddaughter marry hers; it will bring a piquant element into her life; the poor world is so generally a prey to ennui.""Thank you! my goddaughter was not born to marry an adventurer.Idetest this Larinski, and I have vowed that I will play him some abominable trick!""Do not become excited, my dear.What colour are his eyes?""Green as those of the cats or of the owls."Once more the eyes of Princess Gulof flashed and twinkled, and she cried: "An adventurer with green eyes! Why, it is a superb match, and I find you hard to please.""You grieve me, princess," said Mme.de Lorcy."I had promised myself that you would lend me the assistance of your judgment, your incomparable penetration, your experienced eye; that you would aid me in unmasking this Pole, in detecting in him some irremediable vice that would at once prove an insurmountable obstacle to the marriage.
Be good, for once in your life; may I present him to you?""I repeat to you that I am merely taking Paris in passing," replied the princess, "and I am expected in England.Besides, you do too much honour to my incomparable penetration.I swear to you that I am no connoisseur in Larinskis; you may as well spare yourself the pains of presenting to me yours.I am a good-natured woman, who has often been made a good dupe, and I do not complain of it.The best reminiscences of my past are of sundry agreeable errors, and of men skilled in deception.I have found it the wisest way to judge by the labels, and never to ask any one to show me the contents of his sack, for I long ago discovered that sacks are very apt to be empty or at best only poorly filled.Let your goddaughter act according to her own head; if she deceives herself, it is because she wishes to be deceived, and she knows better than you what suits her./Eh! bon Dieu/, what matters it if there be one more unhappy household under the broad canopy of heaven? Besides, it is only fools who are unhappy, and who stupidly pause before a closed portal; others manage in some way to find a loop-hole of escape.Marriage, my dear, is an institution worn threadbare.Ten years hence there will be only free women and husbands on trial.Ten years hence the Countess Larinski will be a liberated countess.Let her serve her time as a galley-slave, and she will come out entirely cured of her follies."Just as Princess Gulof was finishing this remarkable declaration of her principles, the door opened and Mlle.Moriaz entered.Whatever it might cost her to do so, the future Countess Larinski faithfully kept the promise she had made to her father.Mme.de Lorcy was strictly on her guard; she hastened to meet her, held out both hands, kissed her on both cheeks, and reproached her, in the most affectionate tone in the world, for the rarity of her visits.Then she presented her to the princess, who said: "Come here, my beauty, that I may look at you; Ihave been told that you are adorable."
When Antoinette approached, she fixed on her a keen, penetrating glance, examined her from head to foot, passed all her perfections in review: one might have taken her for some Normandy farmer at a cattle-fair.The result of this investigation was satisfactory; the princess cried, "Truly she does very well!" and proceeded to assert that Mlle.
