I have no right to ask what are your intentions, and still less the right to suppose that those intentions can be any thing else than proper in every respect.

May I inquire if it is your design to marry Mademoiselle Lenora ?" "That is my irrevocable determination," replied the young man.
"Irrevocable ?" said the notary.

"Be it so! The confidence which your venerable uncle was always pleased to repose in me, and my position as notary of the family, impose on me the duty of setting before you coolly what you are about to do.

You are a _millionaire_; you have a name which in commerce alone represents an immense capital.

Monsieur De Vlierbeck is penniless; his ruin is generally known; and the world, justly or unjustly, looks askance at a ruined man.