Mademoiselle Celeste Lemprun would inherit the fortune of her mother, the only daughter of a rich farmer.

This fortune consisted of some acres of land in the environs of Paris, which the old father still worked; besides this, she would have the property of Lemprun himself, a man who had left the firms of Thelusson and of Keller to enter the service of the Bank of France.

Lemprun, now the head of that service, enjoyed the respect and consideration of the governors and auditors.
The Bank council, on hearing of the probable marriage of Celeste to an honorable employee at the ministry of finance, promised a wedding present of six thousand francs.

This gift, added to twelve thousand given by Pere Lemprun, and twelve thousand more from the maternal grandfather, Sieur Galard, market-gardener at Auteuil, brought up the dowry to thirty thousand francs.

Old Galard and Monsieur and Madame Lemprun were delighted with the marriage.