"'My father and mother,' said she, shuddering and closing her eyes, 'taunt me with you, Gervais. I ask for a husband who will love me as I would wish to be loved, and in reply they lay diamonds, jewels, fans and feathers at my feet. Away with these, I exclaimed, lest I tread upon them!'
"And then the poor young girl wept passionately—
"'My beloved Isabelle,' I exclaimed, 'how shall I survive seeing you consigned to a fate so miserable—to such a hopeless life—to a lord and master whose age, ideas, tastes, and ways are all so unbearable and uncongenial? Whose scorn and cruelty—oh, I know him well—will make you shrink as the frosty wind withers the early flowers of spring, and whose sordid coldness will crush your little heart! God preserve you, Isabelle, from the fate of many others who are similarly mated and lost in our worthy city of Paris!'
"'I have to thank you for the character you give of me, friend Monjoy, but 'twill avail you little,' said a voice behind us, and we found ourselves in the presence of M. du Platel, and M. d'Escombas who had just spoken, and also of his grim kinsman, the governor of the Conciergerie du Palais.
"Fortunately the latter personage, of whom I had—I know not why—an instinctive horror, was present; for we were in a solitary part of the garden. I had my sword on, and the malevolent smile on the thick lips and coarse dark visage of M. d'Escombas, with the furious scorn and indignation of M. du Platel, might have prompted me to commit some desperate extravagance.
"'Oh, my father, my father!' implored Isabelle; 'let me go back to my convent. Mother St. Rosalie de Sicile assures me that I have a true vocation!'
"'So it seems,' sneered M. d'Escombas, 'by your coming here to meet a young spark three days before your marriage.'
"'Father, it is better to endure the poverty, the vows, the life-long self-abnegation of all in a convent, than an union without love to a man who is older even than thee.'
"Her voice was most touching—her expression lovely; but the old barbarians heard her unmoved.
"'Child, you know not what you say,' replied M. de Platel, in great wrath. 'I provide a rich marriage, a wealthy husband, who will prove a kind one, too; a splendid house here, close by the Luxembourg; a life of freedom and gaiety; and, diable! what more would you have? unless it is this rascal of a student, who would be better inside La Force than here, creating mischief and dispeace.'