Twenty years of age, a charming blonde, with blue eyes, milk-white complexion, and radiant with divine health, Mathilde Stangerson was one of the most beautiful marriageable girls in either the old or the new world.

Mathilde de ----, heiress of a Belgian count, and sundry other children of patrician race, the directress was careful of them as of the others, anxious for their progress, as for that of the rest--but it never seemed to enter her head to distinguish then by a mark of preference; one girl of noble blood she loved dearly--a young Irish baroness --lady Catherine ---; but it was for her enthusiastic heart and clever head, for her generosity and her genius, the title and rank went for nothing.