The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

The youthful pair, however, arc about as anti-
thetical in character, habits, and opinions as can
well be. The lady is possessed by two absorbing
ideas—the grandeur of the family of Penarvan
and the divine right of kings. These two ideas
have grown, in her exalted and sombre nature, to
the proportions of a religion, and to them she is
prepared to make any sacrifice which the fearful
times of the first revolution may demand. Paul, on
the contrary, has been brought up amid very
different influences. His father, with that spirit
of opposition which is occasionally found in
younger sons, had embraced the Liberal cause,
had corresponded with D'Alembert, and contri-
buted articles against Feudalism to the " Ency-
clopedie." Renee's husband, therefore, had been
" smeared over with philosophy from the very
cradle." In his little estate near Rennes "he
" lived familiarly with his tenants, reddened
" with anger if the cowboys called him Monsieur le
" Vicomte, and evinced his love for equality by
" yoking his own oxen ; his hatred for privileges
"by wearing sabots in preference to shoes ; and
" his respect for liberty by allowing the hens
"to lay their eggs in the drawing-room." He
was, in fact, just about to render his adhesion to
democracy irrevocable by marrying a miller's
daughter, when Renee got scent of the meditated
sacrilege, rushed down to Rennes, converted the
good, easy, and fascinated Paul to sentiments
more becoming his birth, and finally carried him
off in triumph from his comfortable farm to in-
habit with her the mouldering ruins of Penarvan
Castle, where, in the long dreary evenings of a
Breton winter, he was regaled with a complete
course of lectures on the grandeur and prowess
of his ancestry :

Conversation in Penarvan Castle always took an epic
turn ; familiarity was entirely banished from it, and every
phrase, down to "good morning" and "good evening,"
was clothed in an heroic dress. But Paul had nothing
either epic or heroic in his composition. If he set about
sawing a plank, repairing a piece of furniture, nailing a
bit of list, or oiling a door-hinge, he was reminded at once
that occupations of the kind did not become a nobleman.
Ile was thirty years old ; his wife was beautiful, and he
loved her. But at the slightest forgetfulness, the smallest
departure from etiquette, the faintest shadow of familiarity,
a disdainful smile or a haughty look recalled him at once
to the dignity of his rank.
Under

like these no wonder that

poor Paul found conjugal felicity an immense
bore; no wonder that he seized the first pretext
on the return of spring to visit his old farm near '
Rennes, whose unrestrained bachelor reminis-
cences were daily becoming dearer to him.
After a month ?pent here, in resumed sabots and
democratic associates, Paul is enchanted by the
receipt of some approach to an affectionate letter
from his wife, who communicates the dawning
prospect of a son and heir, and earnestly presses
his immediate return. The kind-hearted fellow
is beside himself with joy. " Everything grew
" bright around him, and the image of the old
" castle, enlivened by a cradle, rose up before his
" mental vision decked with hues of enchantment."
Full of schemes for the future, he sells his old
farm, at a fancy price, to his friend the miller,
and returns home with a heavy sack of ecus in
the boot of his chaise :
His child at least would be born amid abundance.
How his first smile would light up the old manor !
What love, what tender care, would surround that fair
head! And as he grows up, how everything around bor-
rows beauty from his grace ! Paul was plunged in these
enchanting dreams as he passed through Clisson and
the little valley watered by the Sevre. Viewing again
that landscape, now dressed in all the beauty of spring,
which he had only seen before in the bleak nakedness of
winter; contemplating, btneath an azure sky and a glowing
sun, those lovely waters and the magnificent foliage which
overshadowed them, he felt his transports redouble. Yes,
it was there—it was on those blessed banks, that it was
sweet to love and to be loved !

Remk receives him with even more empresse-
ment than he had anticipated. After the first
embraces,—
" You understood my letter ?" she asked, bending over
kite.

I had no difficulty there," smiled Paul.
"You understood it perfectly?" she added, with em•
phasis.
" Perfectly," he gaily replied ; " so perfectly that I took
posthorses to get home faster."
" Ah, you are a Penarvan ! " and, with a movement of
proud tenderness, she took his head between her two hands
and pressed her lips to his forehead.
" I am simply a man who adores you!" whispered Paul,
again pressing her to his heart.
All this happiness was but a dream. The poor
fellow slept ;—a thunderbolt was about to awake him.
While he was lavishing upon his wife the tender caresses
which she now for the first time permitted, Renee hod,