The Princess of Strurm, whose birth was as sure as her social standing was doubtful, the heroine of countless scandals, ignored by the great heads of her family, impoverished, living no one knew how, yet remaining the legal guardian of a stepdaughter, who was reputed to be one of the greatest heiresses in Europe.

The courts had moved to have her set aside, and failed.

A Cardinal of her late husband's faith, empowered to treat with her on behalf of his relations, offered a fortune for her cession of Jeanne, and was laughed at for his pains.
Whatever her life had been, she remained custodian of the child of the great banker whom she had married late in life.

She endured calmly the threats, the entreaties, the bribes, of Jeanne's own relations.

Jeanne, she was determined, should enter life under her wing, and hers only.