"Mademoiselle," Maximilien went on, "let us go no further if we do not
understand each other. I love you," he said, in a voice of deep
emotion. "Well, then," he added, as he heard the joyful exclamation
she could not suppress, "why ask me if I am of noble birth?"
"Could he speak so if he were not?" cried a voice within her, which
Emilie believed came from the depths of her heart. She gracefully
raised her head, seemed to find new life in the young man's gaze, and
held out her hand as if to renew the alliance.
"You thought I cared very much for dignities?" said she with keen
archness.
"I have no titles to offer my wife," he replied, in a half-sportive,
half-serious tone. "But if I choose one of high rank, and among women
whom a wealthy home has accustomed to the luxury and pleasures of a
fine fortune, I know what such a choice requires of me. Love gives
everything," he added lightly, "but only to lovers. Once married, they
need something more than the vault of heaven and the carpet of a
meadow."
"He is rich," she reflected. "As to titles, perhaps he only wants to
try me. He has been told that I am mad about titles, and bent on
marrying none but a peer's son. My priggish sisters have played me
that trick."--"I assure you, monsieur," she said aloud, "that I have
had very extravagant ideas about life and the world; but now," she
added pointedly, looking at him in a perfectly distracting way, "I
know where true riches are to be found for a wife.
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