sooner or later, and resign yourself to-day to talking like a man of tact and common sense. If you do not, I shall interrupt you every other minute."
The baron knew by experience how deeply his wife loathed a speech, so he turned his chair around again and subsided into it with a sigh.
"Ernestine will arrive this evening, so we must decide upon the course we are to pursue," began the baroness.
"Yes, that is absolutely necessary," replied the baron, "for everything depends upon our harmonious action. We must have the blindest, most entire, most implicit confidence in each other."
"Otherwise we shall lose all the advantages we ought to derive from this guardianship," added the baroness.
"For of course one does not act as guardian merely for the pleasure of it," interpolated the baron.
"On the contrary, we ought to derive both pleasure and profit from the connection," said the baroness.
"That is precisely what I meant," retorted the baron.
"I do not doubt it," replied the baroness. Then she added: "Let us agree in the first place that, in all matters relating to Ernestine, we will never act without a full understanding with one another."
"That resolution is adopted!" cried the baron.
"And is eminently just," remarked Helena.
"As we long ago broke off all connection with the Comtesse de Beaumesnil, – a woman I never could tolerate," – continued the baroness, "we know absolutely nothing about Ernestine's character, but fortunately she is barely sixteen, and in a couple of days we shall be able to read her like a book."
"You may trust to my sagacity for that," said the baron, with a truly Machiavelian air.
"I shall trust to your penetration, of course, but just a little to my own as well," responded the baroness. "But whatever kind of a girl Ernestine may be, there is but one course for us to pursue. We must lavish every attention upon her, gratify her slightest wish, try to ascertain her tastes; in short, flatter her, satisfy her every whim, please her in every possible way. We must do all this if we would succeed. As for the means, they will be found when we become acquainted with Ernestine's habits and tastes."
"The sum and substance of the whole matter is this," began the baron, rising majestically from his chair.
But at a glance from his wife, he reseated himself, and continued, much more modestly:
"Ernestine must think and see and act only through us. That is the main thing."
"The end justifies the means," added Helena, devoutly.
"We are perfectly agreed upon the proper course of action," remarked the baroness. "Ernestine cannot but feel grateful to us for going up-stairs and giving her possession of the entire lower floor, which it has cost nearly fifty thousand francs to renovate, decorate, and furnish for her use."
"And the improvements and furniture will revert to us, of course, as the house is ours," added the baron; "and you know it was decided in the family council that the richest heiress in France must be suitably housed."
"But a much more important and delicate question remains to be discussed," continued the baroness, "the question as to what is to be done in regard to the suitors who are sure to spring up on every side."
"Certain to," said the baron, avoiding his wife's eye.
Helena said never a word, but listened with all her ears.
"Ernestine is sixteen, nearly old enough to be married," continued the baroness, "so the relation we hold to her will give us a prodigious amount of influence, for people will think – and rightly – that we shall virtually decide her in her choice of a husband. This fact is already apparent, for, since you were appointed guardian to Ernestine, any number of persons of high position and noble birth have made, and are still making, all sorts of advances and friendly overtures to me in order to get into my good graces, as the saying is."
"And I, too, have noticed that people I haven't seen for ages, and with whom I was never on particularly friendly terms, are endeavouring to renew their acquaintance. The other day, at Madame de Mirecourt's, I had a crowd around me, I was literally surrounded, beset on every side," said the baron, complacently.
"And even the Marquis de Maillefort, whom I have always hated, is no exception to the rule," added the baroness.
"And you are right," exclaimed the baron. "There is no one in the whole world I hate as I hate that infernal hunchback!"
"I have seen him twice," Helena said, piously, in her turn. "Every vice seems to be written on his face. He looks like Satan himself."
"Well, one day this Satan suddenly dropped down from the clouds, as cool as you please, though he hadn't set foot in my house for five or six years, and he has called several times since."
"If he has taken to flattering you and paying court to you it can hardly be on his own account."
"Evidently not, so I am convinced that M. de Maillefort has some ulterior motive, and I am resolved to discover this motive."
"I'm sorry to learn that he's coming here again," said M. de la Rochaiguë. "He is my greatest antipathy, my bête noire."
"Oh, don't talk nonsense," exclaimed the baroness, impatiently; "we have got to put up with the marquis, there's no help for it. Besides, if a man of his position makes such advances to you, how will it be with others? This is an incontestable proof of our influence. Let us endeavour to profit by it in every possible way, and by and by, when the girl is ready to settle down, we shall be stupid indeed if we cannot induce her to make a choice that will be very advantageous to us."
"You state the case admirably, my dear," said the baron, apparently much impressed, while Helena, who was evidently no less deeply interested, drew her chair closer to that of her brother and his wife.
"And now had we better hasten or retard the moment when Ernestine makes her choice?" asked the baroness.
"A very important question," said the baron.
"My advice would be to defer any decision upon this subject for six months," said the baroness.
"That is my opinion, too," exclaimed the baron, as if this statement of his wife's views had given him great inward satisfaction.
"I agree with you perfectly, my brother, and with you, my sister," said Helena, who had listened silently and with downcast eyes to every word of the conversation.
"Very well," said the baroness, evidently well pleased with this harmony of feeling. "And now there can be no doubt that we shall be able to conduct the affair to a successful termination, for we will all take a solemn oath, by all we hold most dear, to accept no suitor for Ernestine's hand, without warning and consulting one another."
"To act alone or secretly would be an act of infamous, shameless, and horrible treachery," exclaimed the baron, as if shocked at the mere idea of such an atrocity.
"Mon Dieu!" murmured Helena, clasping her hands. "Who could ever think of acting such a treacherous part?"
"It would be an infamous act," said the baroness, in her turn, "and worse, – it would be a fatal blunder. We shall be strong if we act in unison, but weak, if we act independently of one another."
"In union there is strength!" said the baron, sententiously.
"So, unless we mutually agree upon a change of plan, we will defer all action on the subject of Ernestine's marriage for six months, in order that we may have time to strengthen our influence over her."
"This question decided, there is another important matter to be considered," continued the baroness. "Is Ernestine to be allowed to retain her governess or not? This Madame Laîné, as nearly as I can ascertain, is only a little above the ordinary maid. She has been with Ernestine two years, though, and must, consequently, have some influence over her."
"In that case, we had better oust the governess, or prejudice Ernestine against her," volunteered the baron, with an air of profound wisdom. "That would be the thing to do."
"A very silly thing," retorted the baroness.
"But,