Pride: One of the Seven Cardinal Sins

"Ah, monsieur," cried Olivier, with enthusiasm, "Mlle. de Beaumesnil's fortune is all too small for a work like that."

And picking up the pen with a hand trembling with joy and happiness, the young man affixed his name to the contract.

"At last!" exclaimed Herminie and Ernestine, in the same breath, throwing themselves into each other's arms.

As M. de Maillefort was entering his carriage in company with Herminie, for the latter was to live in the house of her adopted father henceforth, M. Bouffard, who was still a prey to the most intense curiosity, suddenly presented himself to the hunchback's astonished gaze.

"Ah, M. Bouffard, I am delighted to see you," remarked the marquis. "It is truly said that Providence sometimes employs strange agents to attain its ends, for you are one of these strange agents, my dear M. Bouffard."

"M. le marquis is too kind," responded M. Bouffard, not understanding in the least what the marquis meant.

"Do you know one thing, my dear M. Bouffard? But for your pitiless greed as a landlord, Mlle. Herminie, my adopted daughter, would not be the Duchesse de Senneterre now."

"What, mademoiselle, my pianist, the daughter of a marquis, and the Duchesse de Senneterre!" faltered M. Bouffard, as the hunchback and the young girl stepped into the handsome coupé, which bore them swiftly away.

A short time after the signing of these contracts, the fashionable world was electrified by the following announcement cards:

"M. de la Rochaiguë has the honour to announce the marriage of Mlle. Ernestine de Beaumesnil, his ward, with M. Olivier Raymond."

"M. le Marquis de Maillefort, Prince Duc de Haut-Martel, has the honour to announce the marriage of Mlle. Herminie de Maillefort, his adopted daughter, with M. le Duc Gerald de Senneterre."