Letters of Two Brides

For my part, I like those long trials of the old-fashioned chivalry.

That lout of a young lord, who took offence because his sovereign-lady

sent him down among the lions to fetch her glove, was, in my opinion,

very impertinent, and a fool too. Doubtless the lady had in reserve

for him some exquisite flower of love, which he lost, as he well

deserved--the puppy!

But here am I running on as though I had not a great piece of news to

tell you. My father is certainly going to represent our master the

King at Madrid. I say our master, for I shall make part of the

embassy. My mother wishes to remain here, and my father will take me

so as to have some woman with him.

My dear, this seems to you, no doubt, very simple, but there are

horrors behind it, all the same: in a fortnight I have probed the

secrets of the house. My mother would accompany my father to Madrid if

he would take M. de Canalis as a secretary to the embassy. But the

King appoints the secretaries; the Duke dare neither annoy the King,

who hates to be opposed, nor vex my mother; and the wily diplomat

believes he has cut the knot by leaving the Duchess here. M. de

Canalis, who is the great poet of the day, is the young man who

cultivates my mother's society, and who no doubt studies diplomacy

with her from three o'clock to five. Diplomacy must be a fine subject,

for he is as regular as a gambler on the Stock Exchange.

The Duc de Rhetore, our elder brother, solemn, cold, and whimsical,

would be extinguished by his father at Madrid, therefore he remains in

Paris. Miss Griffith has found out also that Alphonse is in love with

a ballet-girl at the Opera. How is it possible to fall in love with

legs and pirouettes? We have noticed that my brother comes to the

theatre only when Tullia dances there; he applauds the steps of this

creature, and then goes out. Two ballet-girls in a family are, I

fancy, more destructive than the plague. My second brother is with his

regiment, and I have not yet seen him. Thus it comes about that I have

to act as the Antigone of His Majesty's ambassador. Perhaps I may get

married in Spain, and perhaps my father's idea is a marriage there

without dowry, after the pattern of yours with this broken-down guard

of honor. My father asked if I would go with him, and offered me the

use of his Spanish master.

"Spain, the country for castles in the air!" I cried. "Perhaps you

hope that it may mean marriages for me!"