CHAPTER IX
the continuation of the history of isabelle
"After my brother had told me this story, his favourite subject of conversation was the Chevalier Dumont; but this lasted not long before the accidental sight of a young lady at a neighbour's house turned all his thoughts another way: her name was Dorimene, daughter to the Count de ———. As the Marquis de Stainville never concealed anything from me, he immediately told me the admiration Dorimene had inspired him with; his whole soul was so filled with her idea, he could neither think nor talk of anything else. She was to stay some time with the gentleman's lady where my brother saw her; and, as I had a small acquaintance with her, at his request I went to wait on her, in order to get an opportunity to invite Dorimene to our house. I was a little surprised at the great and sudden effect her charms had had on my brother; but at the first sight of her all my wonder vanished; for the elegant turn of her whole person, joined to the regular beauties of her face, would rather have made it a matter of astonishment if a man of my brother's age could have seen her without being in love with her. In short, a very little conversation with her quite overcame him, and he thought of nothing but marrying her.
"The Marquis de Stainville was in the possession of so large a fortune, that he was a match for Dorimene which there was no danger of her friends refusing; and the gentleman with whom she then was being very intimate with her father, immediately wrote him word of the particular notice my brother took of his daughter. On the receipt of this letter the Count de ——— came to his friend's house, under the pretence of fetching Dorimene home, but in reality with a design of concluding the match be-
