Her mother, who was still young and handsome, had brought her to Paris, to the house of M.de la Popeliniere, a celebrated financier, whose old age she had taken captive.

She educated her daughter for that doubtful destiny which awaits women on whom nature has lavished beauty and mind, and to whom society has refused their right position--adventuresses in society, sometimes raised, sometimes degraded.
The first masters formed this child by all the arts of mind and hand--her mother directed her to ambition.

The second-rate position of this mother at the house of her opulent protector, formed the child to the plasticity and adulation which her mother's domestic condition required and illustrated.

At sixteen years of age her precocious beauty and musical talent caused her to be already sought in the _salons_.

Her mother produced her there in the dubious publicity between the theatre and the world.