A love of reading and an ancient library in which she had a free range had initiated her into many things which the well-brought-up French girl was not supposed to know, and which, indeed, many of them went to their graves without ever finding out.

The Count had a well-stored mind, and on occasion he gave the child the benefit of it, while leaving her mainly to her own devices.
Few of the ancient nobility had come back to the neighborhood.

Their original holdings had been portioned out among the new creations of the Imperial Wizard, and with them the Count held little intercourse.
Laure d'Aumenier had not reached the marriageable age, else some of the newly made gentry would undoubtedly have paid court to her.

She found companions among the retainers of her father's estate.

The devotion of some of them had survived the passionate hatreds of the revolution and, failing the Marquis, who was the head of the house, they loyally served his brother, and with pride and admiration gave something like feudal worship and devotion to the little lady.
The Marquis, an old man now, had never forgiven his brother, the Count, for his compromise with principle and for his recognition of the "usurper," as he was pleased to characterize Napoleon.