with them. She accepted this offer with tears
of gratitude, but as the quiet economy of the
household by no means suited her taste, she
soon endeavoured to introduce a radical change
in all matters of expenditure. In this attempt,
however, she did not succeed; for Carlier,
though kind and gentle, was, in money matters,
his own master. Yet he was blind to the real
character of the woman whom he gave to his
children as guide and companion; a woman
selfish, rapacious, avaricious, utterly unprincipled,
and heartless. Over the young mind of her niece
she gained a complete ascendancy. Auguste was
armed against her with simplicity of character,
and him she hated, though she lavished upon him
the tenderest endearments. After three years,
finding her health restored, she resolved on a
return to Paris. Imposing, therefore, upon
Carlier with a specious tale that it was necessary
for her to go to the capital to save her pension,
she quitted Metz, but kept her hold upon the
mind of Angélique. She induced him to give
his daughter the advantages of Paris training;
and she selected a convent of which the nuns
were celebrated for proficiency in teaching.
Thither Angélique was sent, and she spent all her
holidays with her aunt. Carlier went often to
Paris after his daughter's removal thither, and
was grateful for the attention his aunt paid the girl.
On one of these occasions, he allowed the acute
lady to discover that his will was made, and that
he had left his property, worth more than a
million of livres, equally divided between son
and daughter, with madame for their sole
guardian. He dined with his aunt that evening,
and half an hour afterwards left in the diligence
for Metz. In three days he was dead.

He had never been a strong man, the time
was mid-winter, the weather terribly severe.
His death was ascribed to cold and fatigue,
acting on an enfeebled constitution.

Madame de Remonet would seem to have
had a presentiment of the impending
catastrophe, for she had everything ready for a journey
when the news arrived, and she set off to
Metz, with Angélique, without an hour's delay.
On their arrival, they found Carlier buried, and
the passionate grief of Madame de Remonet
attracted universal sympathy.

Angélique was now nearly sixteen, exquisitely
beautiful, with hair marvellously long and
abundant, so that, when let loose, it covered her,
almost to her feet; its colour was a dark
brown with gleams of light on it, as if sprinkled
with gold-dust. So lovely a beauty Madame
de Remonet was impatient to produce to the
world. She hurried the sale of Carlier's
effects as much as possible, selecting what
she thought fit to retain, and, in five months
after her nephew's death, returned to Paris with
her two young wards. The best rooms of a
handsome hotel were at once furnished with all
the cumbrous luxury of the period, a complete
staff of domestics was engaged, and a career
of dissipation began. Wooers thronged about
the young heiress; and among the rest came
a young man named Henri St. Chaubert,
whose father, the principal notary in Metz,
had been Carlier's close friend. Henri was
clever and energetic, and already distinguished
in the law. His pretensions were soon set at
rest by Madame de Remonet, who, acting upon
Angélique's vanity and ambition, persuaded her
to dismiss (probably) the only lover she ever had,
who cared for herself alone. Among the crowd
were two, especially distinguished: the one by
Madame de Remonet: the other by her niece.
The first was Monsieur Tiquet, President of the
Parliament of Paris, whose relations with madame
had formerly been very intimate. He was old,
ugly, and disagreeable. He had by extravagance
impaired a large fortune, but his position
upheld him. The aunt favoured his pretensions,
for the president had bound himself to pay her
a large sum on the day when he should marry
Angélique. The girl herself inclined to a young
Chevalier de Mongeorge, who was an officer in
the King's Guards: handsome, witty,
accomplished, and really in love, according to the
fashion of the age and country. Mongeorge's
family required high birth in his bride, and
endeavoured to detach him from his mistress.
They procured from the king his appointment
to a colonelcy in a regiment ordered to a remote
part of the kingdom, and, while he was gone,
Monsieur Tiquet made good use of his absence.
Madame de Remonet assisted efficiently.
Angélique was assailed on the one side by fêtes
and costly gifts; and on the other side by
fabulous accounts of the wealth and rank
which should be hers on becoming Madame
Tiquet, and of the envy she would excite
in the hearts of all the girls in Paris.
Particular mention is made of one present which
completely subdued the little power of resistance
Angélique had left. It was a bouquet of
flowers imitated from nature, the leaves being
of gold and emeralds, the flowers of turquoises,
rubies, sapphires, opals, and garnets, sprinkled
with dewdrops of small diamonds. She could
not withstand so gallant and princely an adorer,
and in a few weeks became Madame Tiquet.

Passionately adoring his young wife, the
president was jealous of her lightest look. As
Angélique had been prepared for her married
life, by an intimation from her aunt that
marriage by no means excluded lovers, she insisted
on dressing like a princess, and on entertaining
a throng of flatterers. Her husband wished for
domesticity, and had become, as spendthrifts
sometimes do become, miserly, now that he had
again a fortune. Constant and violent contention
was the consequence, and, to make matters worse,
Mongeorge, whose friends had been made happy
by Angélique's marriage, was recalled to Paris,
and became her satellite. Monsieur Tiquet at
last refused to supply his wife with money
beyond a very small allowance. She applied then
to her aunt, who, by supplying her with funds,
still further established empire over her, while
she repeatedly urged on her how fortunate it
would be were Auguste to die; for Monsieur
Carlier's will had decreed that if either of his
heirs died without issue, the fortune of the