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 last, wearied with their anxieties, both Madame Bourcet and Louis resolved that Madame Bourcet, after attending her brother's lecture, should consult that eminent man, as an expert in managing heiresses. It had become a very serious question as to whether Fifi should be admitted into the Bourcet family or not, but then, there was the money!

Madame Bourcet was not expected to return before half-past two, as her conference with the professor was to take place after the lecture; but at two o'clock, precisely, Louis Bourcet appeared. He had spent an anxious morning. Whichever way the cat might jump would be disastrous for him. If he went on with the marriage, he was likely to die of shock at some of Fifi's vagaries; and if the marriage were declared off, there was a hundred thousand francs, and possibly more, gone, to say nothing of the last chance of being allied to a reigning sovereign. Poor Louis was beset with all the troubles of the over-righteous man.

As he entered the drawing-room, Fifi, dressed in the yellow brocade, which looked more weird than ever by daylight, ran forward to meet him.