In such a situation, a sister as jealous of her power as Brigitte naturally would, and ought, to marry her brother, to suit herself as well as to suit him; for she alone could make him really happy, Madame Thuillier being only an indispensable accessory to the obtaining of two or three children.

If Brigitte did not have an intellect quite the equal of her will, at least she had the instinct of her despotism; without, it is true, education, she marched straight before her, with the headstrong determination of a nature accustomed to succeed.

She had the genius of housekeeping, a faculty for economy, a thorough understanding of how to live, and a love for work.

She saw plainly that she could never succeed in marrying Jerome into a sphere above their own, where parents might inquire into their domestic life and feel uneasy at finding a mistress already reigning in the home.

She therefore sought in a lower grade for persons to dazzle, and found, almost beside her, a suitable match.
The oldest usher at the Bank, a man named Lemprun, had an only daughter, called Celeste.