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52 things acquire when they make us suspect the nature of a beloved object." Was it really the little feather that was in fault, or was it a look, an air, a something that, like a flash, sometimes reveals unsuspected qualities in an intimately-known person. At any rate, it proved "the little rift within the lute." Manon learnt that day from her companion that Lablancherie had lately proposed to a rich, lovely young lady: was known to have done so in several other cases of heiresses, and, oh, horror! went by the name of "the lover of the eleven thousand virgins." How much to believe of this gossip the girl hardly knew; but it shattered the ideal she had formed of him. It had been so much more an ideal she had loved than a man, that she did not suffer very deeply. She had lost faith in Lablancherie, and with her faith all desire to marry him; but she declared that she would only marry the man who was what Lablancherie appeared to be.

The remarkable girl, however, was gradually attracting round her men of literary distinction and high social position, only too proud to come and chat with her. Among these was a Monsieur de Sainte Lette, a deputy from the Colony of Pondicherry to the French Court. This gentleman, who had travelled over all the world, and who had amassed a vast fund of knowledge and observation, came to the Phlipons with a letter of introduction from a certain Demontchery, a captain of sepoys in India, who, before leaving Paris, had also unsuccessfully proposed for the fair Manon. On returning to France after some years, he intended renewing his proposal, but learned that the lady had become Roland's wife within the fortnight. The society of Sainte Lette, a man of about sixty, but full of fire and intellect, a friend of Helvétius, and an enthusiastic humanitarian, was a