We young girls have only two ways to act; we must let a man know we love him by mincing and simpering, or we must go to him frankly.

Isn't the last way grand and noble?
We French girls are delivered over by our families like so much merchandise, at sixty days' sight, sometimes thirty, like Mademoiselle Vilquin; but in England, and Switzerland, and Germany, they follow very much the plan I have adopted.

Now what have you got to say to that?
Am I not half German ?" "Child!" cried the colonel, looking at her; "the supremacy of France comes from her sound common-sense, from the logic to which her noble language constrains her mind.

France is the reason of the whole world.
England and Germany are romantic in their marriage customs,--though even there noble families follow our customs.

You certainly do not mean to deny that your parents, who know life, who are responsible for your soul and for your happiness, have no right to guard you from the stumbling-blocks that are in your way?
Good heavens!" he continued, speaking half to himself, "is it their fault, or is it ours?
Ought we to hold our children under an iron yoke?
Must we be punished for the tenderness that leads us to make them happy, and teaches our hearts how to do so ?" Modeste watched her father out of the corner of her eye as she listened to this species of invocation, uttered in a broken voice.
"Was it wrong," she said, "in a girl whose heart was free, to choose for her husband not only a charming companion, but a man of noble genius, born to an honorable position, a gentleman; the equal of myself, a gentlewoman ?" "You love him ?" asked her father.
"Father!" she said, laying her head upon his breast, "would you see me die ?" "Enough!" said the old soldier.