The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-09 00:00:00

MENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN

" They may say what they like. lam no child
now ; lam a man. lam ,one of the first digni-
taries of the kingdom. I shall be fifteen in June.
Ah, my dearest cousin, I reckon on you to save
me."

" So I would, Henry, with all my heart ; but
ain't you afraid of compromising me ? Only
think, at your age—the Governor of a Province ?
It would never do."

" Ah," stammered the boy " you think so. I
never thought of that."
The lovely Duchess, as she looked upon the
perplexed and troubled features of her young
cousin, could continue no longer to sustain the
part she undertook, but.burst into an immoderate
fit of laughter. Bouffiers, who could make
nothing of this excess of mirth, stood like one
thunderstruck ; and at last, she continuing to
laugh on, his temper gave way, he stamped his
foot upon the ground with auger, and walked to
the other end of the room. She tried in vain to
coax him back ; and at last, walking on tiptoe,
she approached him, and, taking his hand within
her own, she said—

"My poor boy ; so you are very angry with
me 'I" _ _ _

Bouffiers spoke not a word ; the heavy tears
rolled down his cheeks, and his heart swelled to
bursting ; but love triumphed, and, smiling
through all his sorrow, he murmured timidly,
" Oh, no ; I am not angry with you."
" Bad boy !" said Madame de Saint Cerets, as
she pressed her lips upon his forehead, and looked
on him with admiration.

He threw himself upon his knee before the
lovely Duchess, and burst forth into a regular
declaration of love, when suddenly the door
opened with a crash, and a middle-aged man in
the dress of an Abbe, pale, travel-stained, and
flurried, entered the chamber.
" Ah ! Monsieur le Marquis," cried he, "you'll
not escape me this time ;" and at the mo-
ment he seized him by the arm, and proceeded to
drag him from the room. " Come, Monsieur,"
said he, in a tone half supplicating, half com-
manding, " the carriage is in waiting. Come
quickly, or you'll miss the Greek lecture, which
begins at one exactly. What will their Reverences
say on your coming so late ? Madame le Duchesse,
aid me, I beseech you, to persuade him."
Unhappily for the poor Abbe, the lovely ally
whose aid he invoked had as much as she could
do to repress her laughter at the whole affair ;
upon which the tutor, looking on the case as
desperate, resolved not to lose a moment, and
called to a lackey without—" Holloa there ! Take
Monsieur le Marquis, and with every respect to
his rank carry him to the carriage."
The next moment the unhappy Bouffiers was
seized in the strong arms of the lackey, and before
he was well conscious of the change, the carriage-
door was closed upon him. In less than half an
hour after the carriage drew up at the College of
the Jesuits. When young Boufflers entered that
gloomy portal his heart sickened within him. He
felt that on that threshold he must drop every
privilege of his rank and fortunes, all the illusions,
and as it were all the high hopes that make life
glorious, and become the mere equal of three
hundred others, taken from every class and con-
dition in society.
The clock of the college chimed two, and at the
same moment a deep voice called out through the
ample hall—
I I" Monsieur de Boufflers, you are five hours late.
The Superior wants you."
Suddenly remembering the events of the day
before, he bethought him that the favour of Louis
XIV. was like a halo, which should ward off every
danger, and with a courageous effort he walked
manfully forward and stood before the Prior.