The things we do!

"You tell me to marry and range myself," said Clive (to whom the Viscount
was expatiating upon the charms of the superbe young Anglaise with whom
he had seen Clive walking on the promenade). "Why do you not marry and
range yourself too?"
"Eh, my dear! I am married already. You do not know it? I am married
since the Revolution of July. Yes. We were poor in those days, as poor we
remain. My cousins the Duc d'Ivry's sons and his grandson were still
alive. Seeing no other resource and pursued by the Arabs, I espoused the
Vicomtesse de Florac. I gave her my name, you comprehend, in exchange for
her own odious one. She was Miss Higg. Do you know the family Higg of
Manchesterre in the comte of Lancastre? She was then a person of a ripe
age. The Vicomtesse is now--ah! it is fifteen years since, and she dies
not. Our union was not happy, my friend--Madame Paul de Florac is of the
reformed religion--not of the Anglican Church, you understand--but a
dissident I know not of what sort.


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