Of all her family, there only
remains her granddaughter, whose father died very young.
Of a fortune originally large, and partly restored by the indemnity
allowed by the government, but since administered in the most careless
manner, she has only been able to preserve an income of twenty thousand
francs, which diminishes day by day. She is, also, proprietor of the
pretty little house which she inhabits, situated near the Invalides,
between a rather narrow court-yard, and a very extensive garden.
So circumstanced, she considers herself the most unfortunate of God's
creatures, and passes the greater part of her life complaining of her
poverty. From time to time, especially after some exceptionally bad
speculation, she confesses that what she fears most is to die in a
pauper's bed.
A friend of M. Daburon's presented him one evening to the Marchioness
d'Arlange, having dragged him to her house in a mirthful mood, saying,
"Come with me, and I will show you a phenomenon, a ghost of the past in
flesh and bone."
The marchioness rather puzzled the magistrate the first time he was
admitted to her presence. On his second visit, she amused him very much;
for which reason, he came again.
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