Linders, and his little daughter,
Madeleine.
CHAPTER IV.
Retrospect.
M. Linders was of both Belgian and French extraction, his
father having been a native of Liege, his mother a Parisian of
good family, who, in a moment of misplaced sentiment, as she
was wont in after years to sigh, had consented to marry a
handsome young Belgian officer, and had expiated her folly by
spending the greater part of her married life at Malines,
where her husband was stationed, and at Liege, where his
mother and sister resided. Adolphe's education, however, was
wholly French; for Madame Linders, who, during her husband's
life, had not ceased to mourn over her exile from her own
city, lost no time, after his death, in returning to Paris
with her two children, Therese, a girl of about twelve, and
Adolphe, then a child five or six years old.
Madame Linders had money, but not much, and she made it go
further than did ever Frenchwoman before, which is saying a
great deal. Adolphe must be educated, Adolphe must be clothed,
Adolphe was to be a great man some day; he was to go into the
army, make himself a name, become a General, a Marshal,--heaven
knows what glories the mother did not dream for him, as she
turned and twisted her old black silks, in the _entresol_ in the
Chaussee d'Antin, where she had her little apartment.
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