However poor a daughter of the Claes might be, she would bring to a husband the dower of social vanity so eagerly desired by all parvenus.

Pierquin therefore returned to his allegiance, with the secret intention of making the necessary sacrifices to conclude a marriage which should realize all his ambitions.

He kept company with Balthazar and Felicie during Marguerite's absence; but in so doing he discovered, rather late in the day, a formidable competitor in Emmanuel de Solis.

The property of the deceased abbe was thought to be considerable, and to the eyes of a man who calculated all the affairs of life in figures, the young heir seemed more powerful through his money than through the seductions of the heart--as to which Pierquin never made himself uneasy.

In his mind the abbe's fortune restored the de Solis name to all its pristine value.
Gold and nobility of birth were two orbs which reflected lustre on one another and doubled the illumination.
The sincere affection which the young professor testified for Felicie, whom he treated as a sister, excited Pierquin's spirit of emulation.