She belongs to the very top of the basket, as they say here.
Her family, on each side, is of fabulous antiquity; her mother is the daughter of an English Catholic earl.

Her father is dead, and since her widowhood she has lived with her mother and a married brother.

There is another brother, younger, who I believe is wild.

They have an old hotel in the Rue de l'Universite, but their fortune is small, and they make a common household, for economy's sake.

When I was a girl I was put into a convent here for my education, while my father made the tour of Europe.
It was a silly thing to do with me, but it had the advantage that it made me acquainted with Claire de Bellegarde.