Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/54

 236 WORKMEN AND HEROES In spite of her philosophy, her seriousness, and her learning, however, Manon Philipon was a girl, and a charming one ; and we learn in her letters to Sophie how she was pestered with lovers of low and high degree, during her long maid- enhood. I might better say with proposals for her hand, since, as we know, French custom does not permit the " love-making " which American girls consid- er their natural prerogative. Manon was so beautiful, brilliant, and magnetic, that when she went out to promenade with her father, she was greeted with admiring glances and remarks ; and from the fruit vender of whom she made occasional purchases, and the butcher who served the family with joints, to dancing and drawing masters, up along the line to merchants, professional, and literary men, she seemed to fasci- nate and attract with no effort on her own part. Each one in turn asked for her hand and was rejected ; and a host of others followed, to meet a similar fate, until her father threatened to marry her to the first stranger who crossed his portal, whether either one wished it or no. She says in her memoirs, " The respectable character of my mother, the appear- ance of some fortune, and my being an only child, made the project of matri- mony a tempting one to a number of persons who were strangers to me. The greater part, finding it difficult to obtain an introduction, adopted the expedient of writing to my father. These letters were always shown to me. I wrote the answers, which my father faithfully copied. I was much amused at acting the part of my own father, and dismissed my suitors with dignity, leaving no room for resentment or hope. Here began to break out those dissensions with my father which lasted ever after. He loved and respected commerce, I despised it ; and he was much concerned at my rejection of suitors who possessed anv fort- une." After the death of Madame Philipon, which occurred in her daughter's twenty-first year, Manon r s life at home became almost unbearable. Her extreme grief impaired her health, and anxiety and mortification were added by the ex- cesses and frivolous extravagances into which her father plunged. He formed associations with people' of bad character, and took to gambling. Manon strove to make herself an agreeable companion, and to entertain him at home, but the attempt was futile. She filled her lonely hours with study, and with writing letters to Sophie. One day a tall, thin gentleman, bald and yellow, past forty, and looking older, presented a letter of introduction from Miss Cannet. It was M. Roland, an austere philosopher, of an' ancient family, to whom So- phie had often referred. Manon admired his intellect and his respectability ; and when, after some two or three years, he made an offer of marriage, she was ready to accept ; but M. Philipon bluntly and insolently refused his consent, through a strong personal dislike which he had conceived for the severe moralist and philosopher. Manon could not marry against her father's wishes, but she could leave the home now so distasteful to her. She had saved only a small sum from her moth- er's fortune, amounting to about one hundred dollars per year. With this, she