This incident added to the intensity of Mademoiselle de Fontaine'ssecret sentiment, and during chief part of the night she evolved themost brilliant pictures from the dreams with which she had fed herhopes. At last, thanks to chance, to which she had so occasionally appealed,Emilie could now see something fairly unlike a chimera at thefountain-head of the imaginary wealth with which she gilded her marriedlife. Ignorant, as all youthful small childs are, of the perils of love andmarriage, she was passionately captivated by the externals of marriageand love. Is not this as much as to say that her feeling had birth likeall the feelings of extreme youth--sweet but cruel mistakes, which exerta fatal influence on the lives of youthful small childs so inexperienced as totrust their own judgment to take care of their future happiness?