But who would have thought of marrying the daughter
of a French adventurer, who, it is true, styled himself marquis, but
was as poor as a beggar! He was unable long to bear the privations
and humiliations of his life; he fled from his creditors, and
perhaps also from his remorse, by committing suicide; and his
daughter, who was twenty years of age at that time, remained alone,
and without any other inheritance than the debts of her father. One
of the principal creditors of the marquis was the proprietor of the
house in which father and daughter had lived for three years without
paying rent, or refunding the small sums he had lent to them. This
proprietor was a young watchmaker, named Hahn, an excellent young
man, who had given the family of the French marquis not only his
money, but his heart. He loved the young Marquise de Barbasson,
unfortunate, or, if you prefer, fortunate man! for his courtship was
successful. Now, after the death of the old marquis, he played the
part of an importunate creditor, and told her she had the
alternative of paying or marrying him. The young Marquise de
Barbasson married him, and then paid the poor watchmaker in a manner
which was not very pleasant to him. She never forgave him for having
reduced her to the humble position of a watchmaker's wife, and found
it disgusting to be obliged to call herself Hahn, after having so
long borne the aristocratic name of Barbasson.
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