My mistress began to make her preparations, and Susanna was a witness of her consultation with the marquis about whether she would keep or sell the Holland estates and castles.

But the wedding did not take place, for the marquis was obliged to go to Italy with the army and her excellenza lived in perpetual anxiety about him; at that time the French fared ill in my country, and he often left her whole months without news.

At last he returned and found in the Chevreaux's house his betrothed wife's little cousin, who had grown up into a charming young lady.
"You can imagine the rest.

The rose-bud Hortense now pleased the marquis far better than the Holland flower of five and twenty.

The Chevreaux's were aristocratic but deeply in debt, and the suitor, while fighting in Italy, had inherited the whole of his uncle's great estate, so they did not suffer him to sue in vain.