Mademoiselle
d'Herouville made enormous pretensions wholly out of keeping with the
spirit of the times; for great names, without the money to keep them
up, can seldom win rich heiresses among the higher French nobility,
who are themselves embarrassed to provide for their sons under the new
law of the equal division of property. To marry the young Duc
d'Herouville, it was necessary to conciliate the great banking-houses;
but the haughty pride of the daughter of the house alienated these
people by cutting speeches. During the first years of the Restoration,
from 1817 to 1825, Mademoiselle d'Herouville, though in quest of
millions, refused, among others, the daughter of Mongenod the banker,
with whom Monsieur de Fontaine afterwards contented himself.
At last, having lost several good opportunities to establish her
nephew, entirely through her own fault, she was just considering
whether the property of the Nucingens was not too basely acquired, or
whether she should lend herself to the ambition of Madame de Nucingen,
who wished to make her daughter a duchess. The king, anxious to
restore the d'Herouvilles to their former splendor, had almost brought
about this marriage, and when it failed he openly accused Mademoiselle
d'Herouville of folly.
Pages:
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270