She had been told so often, it had been repeated again and again, that the man whom she would choose must esteem himself fortunate above all others.
She had seen her father besieged by so many suitors for her hand.
“Besides,” she thought, smiling proudly, as she surveyed her reflection in the large mirrors; “am I not as pretty as Marie-Anne?”
“Far prettier!” murmured the voice of vanity; “and you possess what your rival does not: birth, wit, the genius of coquetry!”
She did, indeed, possess sufficient cleverness and patience to assume and to sustain the character which seemed most likely to dazzle and to fascinate Martial.
As to maintaining this character after marriage, if it did not please her to do so, that was another matter!
The result of all this was that during dinner Mlle. Blanche exercised all her powers of fascination upon the young marquis.
She was so evidently desirous of pleasing him that several of the guests remarked it.
Some were even shocked by such a breach of conventionality. But Blanche de Courtornieu could do as she chose; she was well aware of that. Was she not the richest heiress for miles and miles around? No slander can tarnish the brilliancy of a fortune of more than a million in hard cash.
“Do you know that those two young people will have a joint income of between seven and eight hundred thousand francs!” said one old viscount to his neighbor.