A "soi-disant" fashionable Parisian is never without introductions, and he was invited at the instance of a friend of the Mignons to a fete given at Ingouville.

He fell in love with Bettina and with her fortune, and in three months he had done the work of seduction and enticed her away.

The father of a family of daughters should no more allow a young man whom he does not know to enter his home than he should leave books and papers lying about which he has not read.

A young girl's innocence is like milk, which a small matter turns sour,--a clap of thunder, an evil odor, a hot day, a mere breath.
When Charles Mignon read his daughter's letter of farewell he instantly despatched Madame Dumay to Paris.

The family gave out that a journey to another climate had suddenly been advised for Caroline by their physician; and the physician himself sustained the excuse, though unable to prevent some gossip in the society of Havre.