“Here is the masterpiece,” said Camusot, opening out the fan.

Brunner took it in his hand and looked at it.  “It is worth five thousand francs,” he said after a moment.

“Did you not come here, sir, to ask for my granddaughter?” inquired the future peer of France.

“Yes, sir,” said Brunner; “and I beg you to believe that no possible marriage could be more flattering to my vanity.  I shall never find any one more charming nor more amiable, nor a young lady who answers to my ideas like Mlle. Cecile; but—­”

“Oh, no buts!” old Camusot broke in; “or let us have the translation of your ‘buts’ at once, my dear sir.”

“I am very glad, sir, that the matter has gone no further on either side,” Brunner answered gravely.  “I had no idea that Mlle. Cecile was an only daughter.  Anybody else would consider this an advantage; but to me, believe me, it is an insurmountable obstacle to—­”

“What, sir!” cried Camusot, amazed beyond measure.  “Do you find a positive drawback in an immense advantage?  Your conduct is really extraordinary; I should very much like to hear the explanation of it.”

“I came here this evening, sir,” returned the German phlegmatically, “intending to ask M. le President for his daughter’s hand.  It was my desire to give Mlle. Cecile a brilliant future by offering her so much of my fortune as she would consent to accept.  But an only daughter is a child whose will is law to indulgent parents, who has never been contradicted.  I have had the opportunity of observing this in many families, where parents worship divinities of this kind.  And your granddaughter is not only the idol of the house, but Mme. la Presidente . . . you know what I mean.  I have seen my father’s house turned into a hell, sir, from this very cause.  My stepmother, the source of all my misfortunes, an only daughter, idolized by her parents, the most charming betrothed imaginable, after marriage became a fiend incarnate.  I do not doubt that Mlle. Cecile is an exception to the rule; but I am not a young man, I am forty years old, and the difference between our ages entails difficulties which would put it out of my power to make the young lady happy, when Mme. la Presidente always carried out her daughter’s every wish and listened to her as if Mademoiselle was an oracle.  What right have I to expect Mlle. Cecile to change her habits and ideas?  Instead of a father and mother who indulge her every whim, she would find an egotistic man of forty; if she should resist, the man of forty would have the worst of it.  So, as an honest man—­I withdraw.  If there should be any need to explain my visit here, I desire to be entirely sacrificed—­”

“If these are your motives, sir,” said the future peer of France, “however singular they may be, they are plausible—­”

“Do not call my sincerity in question, sir,” Brunner interrupted quickly.  “If you know of a penniless girl, one of a large family, well brought up but without fortune, as happens very often in France; and if her character offers me security, I will marry her.”