New Hampshire Statesman

From the Courrier des Etats Unis.

Hints to Marriageable Young Ladies.

BY EUGENE GUINOT

Mademoiselle Armande N. is a charming young person, with a dowry of eighty thousand francs.— This fortune allows her to aspire to the hand of a young provincial lawyer, but Armande has for an aunt and a godmother a very ambitious lady, who promises her a more brilliant match.

"My niece," said the good lady, " is made to marry a great lord—only he must be sought for. But I know where these great matches are to be found."

"Where then?"

" In Germany, at the baths, at those summer resorts which are the rendezvous of the beau monde of all countries. I, who am telling you about it. went to those waters twenty years ago—I was not so pretty as my niece, and yet I might have been a duchess, if unfortunately I had not been married."

The good lady wished to realize her dream. She carried her niece beyond the Rhine, to a watering place which is beloved by all the world.

Miss Armande had great success. Her aunt had spared no expense to make her shine, and the young lady was dressed like the god-daughter of a fairy. The most dazzling toilets added to her graces their elegance and their splendor. She changed her dresses twice a day. She excelled all the other ladies at the balls and drives. She was quoted as the pearl of fine ladies, she was admired, surrounded, and proclaimed the queen of the season.

But these triumphs, flattering as they were, did not attain the serious end which had been proposed. Armande found partners and admirers in crowds, but no husband. Her remarkable beauty and her exquisite grace had however made more than one conquest, and among others had touched the heart of a young Parisian, M. René de C.; but the young man, justly alarmed at the luxury and the great style of Armande, had informed himself of her dowry. They had told him it was eighty thousand francs.

The sum seemed to him disproportionate to the splendor of the young lady, and he said to himself with a sigh:

It is too little. My forty thousand pounds capital will not be enough to satisfy the extravagant tastes, and pay for toilets of such a lavish lady.

M. René resigned himself therefore to conceal his sentiments, and sadly stood aside.

After six weeks of hollow glory, Armande left the waters with her aunt, who had exhausted all her savings in a vain attempt.

At the beginning of the month of September, M. René found himself in the environs of L., at the house of one of his friends. Going one morning to make a visit in the neighborhood, he perceived that he had missed his way. Some information was indispensable, and, to ask it, he directed his steps towards a house of modest appearance which he had perceived at a short distance from the place where he had just stopped in his false path.

He crossed a well cultivated kitchen garden, and approaching the house he heard a fresh and silvery voice utter these words:

" Wait a minute, I am coming."

This voice made him tremble. He thought he recognized that of Mademoiselle Armande, with whom, however, he had conversed but little.

He approached softly, and saw a young lady occupied with a very prosaic care.

She was feeding the chickens. Her back was turned towards M. René. He saw only her form, which was charming in her calico dress. Her head disappeared under a large hat of coarse straw. The hand that threw out the grain was small and delicate but browned by the sun.

Everything he saw reminded him of Armande.— But how could he believe that it was she? The pearl of fine ladies in a calico dress and peasant's hat! The queen of the watering place feeding hens!

When she had given out all the corn which was in her apron, she turned and passed near M. René without seeing him: but he had plainly seen her and it was the charming face of Mademoiselle, browned a little, like her hands.

He remained a moment speechless. He then went into the house and found Mademoiselle Armande employed in settling household accounts with the cook.

His surprise deprived him of speech, and he had some trouble in explaining the motive of his sudden apparition.

"Joana will show you your road directly, unless you will rest yourself a little while," said Armande pointing to the adjoining room, the door of which was open.

It was a little parlor in which M. René found the father and mother of the young lady, and the ambitious godmother who had carried her to the waters.

He asked the aunt and niece if they did not recollect him. The aunt answered that she did not.

" It seems to me as if I had seen you, but I cannot tell where or when," replied the young lady.

M. René felt a little saddened that Mademoiselle had preserved only a vague and confused remembrance of him. He reminded these ladies that he had met them at the baths.

The young lady smiled as she glanced at her country toilet. Her aunt sighed, as she thought of the failure of her hopes.

Before taking his leave M. René improved his position as a neighbor to obtain permission to come again. He came the next day and found the queen of the waters making preserves.

Every day he surprised her thus engaged in household cares, always simple, natural, modest, happy. The metamorphosis was complete, or rather the queen for a day turned for a moment from her true vocation, and returned with joy to her own habits and tastes.

" You do not then regret the pleasures of last summer?" asked M. René.

"I, not at all! I leave the regrets to my good aunt. It was to please her that I went with her to the waters."

"Do you return there next summer ?"

"No, indeed, once is enough, and I was quite weary of them."

" What do you say, was not the place full of enchantment to you? Were there not ever new fêtes when you displayed yourself brilliant in charms and ornaments. surrounded by homage and admiration ?"

" I may appear very absurd to you, but these fêtes and this great world fatigued me. I was ill at ease in the part of a fine lady which I was made to play. I felt ridiculously in those dresses of which you speak, and in those six weeks of forced elegance I became disgusted with the toilet for the rest of my life."

Meantime, you would not be sorry to find again next winter the pleasures of Paris ?

" We do not go to Paris this year. Paris is too dear."

" What, do you resign yourself to the existence one leads in a little provincial city ?"

"I have already passed one winter in this little city, and I enjoyed myself very much here. I hope we shall stay in the country. A country girl and a peasant, this is what I am, and I own it frankly."

"But if a husband should take you to Paris ?"

"I should obey."

" And if this husband were—me."

Armande blushed and cast down her eyes. After a moment's silence, the marriageable young lady made timidly some objections.

"Perhaps," said she, " you think me richer than I am."

" I know," replied M. René, "that you have a very fine dowry."

" But no, I have only eighty thousand francs."

" You have much more than that."

"How?"

"Let us reckon. You would be content with a thousand crowns a year for your toilet ?"

" Well, then, that is too much."

" That is nine thousand francs saved, for there is no woman of fashion who does not spend at least fifty louis a month for the toilet. Do you depend on having a box at the Opera or the Italian?"

"Not in the least."

"This makes six thousand francs gained for our winter. You give up a stay at the watering places, and you spend six months in the country ?"

"I ask nothing better."

"The profit will be ten thousand francs. At Paris as well as in the country you will keep the household accounts, you will watch over the family expenditures, and keep them within prudent limits."

" I should not fail to do all this."

" And we should gain thereby at least fifteen thousand francs a year. Now calculate. Add the advantages that I have just enumerated, and you will see that you bring forty thousand francs a year in savings, which represent a capital of eight hundred thousand francs, joined to your eighty thousand.— You are then richer than I am, who have only forty thousand pounds."

The calculation made by love and reason was a just one. Modesty of tastes, order and economy are a good dowry,—a real fortune, which is rare to find among the girls of our times at Paris.

Armande was then an excellent match.

She had not observed M. René at the waters, but he pleased her in the country.

So that the arrangements were soon made, and last week the guests of the Chateau de L. were present at the celebration of a marriage which bids fair to be happy.