A sense of incompleteness had taken hold of him.

The heir to a marquisate, the possessor of an income of forty thousand livres the year, endowed with health and physical beauty, and yet there was a flaw which marred the whole.

It was true that he was light-hearted, always and ever ready for a rout, whether with women or with men, whether with wine or with dice; but under all this brave show there was a canker which ate with subtile slowness, but surely.

To be disillusioned at the age of sixteen by one's own father! To be given gold and duplicate keys to the wine-cellars! To be eye-witness of Roman knights over which this father had presided like a Tiberius! The Duchesse de Montbazon had been in her youth a fancy of the marquis, his father.

Was it not a fine stroke of irony to decide that this son of his should marry the obscure daughter of madame ?--the daughter about whom very few had ever heard?
Without the Chevalier's sanction, miniatures had been exchanged.