Mariette had begun her studies when she was ten years old; she was now just sixteen.

Alas! for want of becoming clothes, her beauty, hidden under a coarse shawl, dressed in calico, and ill-kept, could only be guessed by those Parisians who devote themselves to hunting grisettes and the quest of beauty in misfortune, as she trotted past them with mincing step, mounted on iron pattens.

Philippe fell in love with Mariette.

To Mariette, Philippe was commander of the dragoons of the Guard, a staff-officer of the Emperor, a young man of twenty-seven, and above all, the means of proving herself superior to Florentine by the evident superiority of Philippe over Giroudeau.

Florentine and Giroudeau, the one to promote his comrade's happiness, the other to get a protector for her friend, pushed Philippe and Mariette into a "mariage en detrempe,"-- a Parisian term which is equivalent to "morganatic marriage," as applied to royal personages.
Philippe when they left the house revealed his poverty to Giroudeau, but the old roue reassured him.
"I'll speak to my nephew Finot," he said.