Publisher's Synopsis
Book Excerpt: re to woo fortune afresh; and thefarm he had established was indeed prospering when, during a suddenrevival of Arab brigandage, both he and his wife were murdered and theirhome was destroyed. Thus the only place of refuge for the little girl, who had escaped miraculously, was the home of her uncle, who showed hergreat kindness during the two years of life that remained to him. Withher, however, were Alexandre, whose companionship was rather dull, andhis younger sister, Seraphine, a big, vicious, and flighty girl ofeighteen, who, as it happened, soon left the house amid a frightfulscandal--an elopement with a certain Baron Lowicz, a genuine baron, buta swindler and forger, to whom it became necessary to marry her. Shethen received a dowry of 300,000 francs. Alexandre, after his father'sdeath, made a money match with Constance, who brought him half a millionfrancs, and Marianne then found herself still more a stranger, stillmore isolated beside her new cousin, a thin, dry, authoritative woman, whoRead Mo
