love, with something of the mind and heart suited to my taste: not uneducated—honest and modest. I care nothing for attainments; but I would fain have the germ of those sweet natural powers which nothing acquired can rival: any temper Fate wills,—I can manage the hottest. To such a creature as this, I should like to be first tutor and then husband. I would teach her my language, my habits, and my principles, and then I would reward her with my love.'
"'Reward her! lord of the creation! Reward her!' ejaculated she, with a curled lip.
"'And be repaid a thousandfold,'
"'If she willed it, Monseigneur.'
"'And she should will it.'
"'You have stipulated for any temper Fate wills. Compulsion is flint and a blow to the metal of some souls.'
"'And love the spark it elicits.'
"'Who cares for the love that is but a spark—seen flown upward, and gone?'
"'I must find my orphan girl. Tell me how, Miss Keeldar.'
"'Advertise; and be sure you add, when you describe the qualifications, she must be a good plain cook.'
"'I must find her; and when I do find her, I shall marry her.'
"'Not you!' and her voice took a sudden accent of peculiar scorn.
"I liked this: I had roused her from the pensive mood in which I had first found her: I would stir her further.
