His rank itself seemed to him a waste-paper title-deed to a heritage long lapsed.

Not thus the princely seigneurs of Rochebriant made their 'debut' at the capital of their nation.

They had had the 'entree' to the cabinets of their kings; they had glittered in the halls of Versailles; they had held high posts of distinction in court and camp; the great Order of St.Louis had seemed their hereditary appanage.
His father, though a voluntary exile in manhood, had been in childhood a king's page, and throughout life remained the associate of princes; and here, in an 'avoue's soiree,' unknown, unregarded, an expectant on an 'avoue's' patronage, stood the last lord of Rochebriant.
It is easy to conceive that Alain did not stay long.

But he stayed long enough to convince him that on L200 a year the polite society of Paris, even as seen at M.Gandrin's, was not for him.

Nevertheless, a day or two after, he resolved to call upon the nearest of his kinsmen to whom his aunt had given him letters.