I swore solemnly to make my fortune myself, and not be led by motives of cupidity in choosing the companion of my life.

I have also reproached myself for the blamable curiosity you have excited in me.

You have not six millions.

There is no concealment possible in Havre for a young lady who possesses such a fortune; you would be discovered at once by the pack of hounds of great families whom I see in Paris on the hunt after heiresses, and who have already sent one, the grand equerry, the young duke, among the Vilquins.

Therefore, believe me, the sentiments I have now expressed are fixed in my mind as a rule of life, from which I have abstracted all influences of romance or of actual fact.