Page:Madame Rolland (Blind 1886).djvu/79

Rh Sainte Lette and a certain Boismorel, two seniors whom she venerated for their wisdom and knowledge, shows that the idea of looking at him in any other light was far from her thoughts. Yet the staid philosopher could not come thus frequently in contact with the glowing nature of this magnificent girl without experiencing a stronger emotion than friendship. His feelings insensibly changed, and in the beginning of 1779 he made Manon an offer of his hand. She, who respected and honoured him more than any man she had met, felt highly gratified by this mark of affection. The prospect it opened of passing her life with one guided by the same lofty notions of duty and patriotism as herself, had always been the limit of her aspirations. True, this woman of five-and-twenty, in the full energy of life, would have been capable of a very different feeling from that inspired in her by the grave middle-aged Roland, more than twenty years her senior; nevertheless, it was a marriage in harmony with her preconceived views, and the consideration which prevented her from accepting him at first was not one of sentiment but of pride.

The French custom of the woman bringing a dowry to her husband is so general, that to a proud nature, such as Manon's, the idea of entering the marriage state empty-handed, owing everything to the man she wedded, was almost intolerable. Shrinking from the idea of marrying into a family who would consider M. Roland's choice as one beneath his name and expectations, she put all these objections before her wooer, with the cool impartiality of a third party, and advised him to desist from his suit. To advise a man to desist usually has the opposite effect of making him persist the more obstinately. This happened in Roland's case,