The Fall of the Dubarrys

"About this time also, Charles Dubarry was inspired with a certain
ambition for his eldest son, a densely ignorant, half-Indian youth of
nineteen; and hearing that the two young sons of Richard Berners of
Black Hall were to be sent to England to be educated, he proposed that
his own 'black boy,' as he called his handsome dark-eyed heir, should go
with them. And as the three lads had been forest companions for some
years, the proposal of old Dubarry was gladly accepted, and the three
young men sailed in company for England.

"They spent ten years in the old world, and returned, as as they had set
out, together. It was after their return that the close friendship of a
young lifetime was turned to the deadliest enmity. It happened in this
manner: "The country, during their absence, had grown a great deal in
population. Every rich valley among these mountains had its white
proprietor. In the Valley of the Roses--so named, because at the time it
was taken possession of by its first proprietor, it was fairly carpeted
and festooned all around and about with the wild-rose vine--dwelt one
Gabriel Mayo, a gentleman of fortune, taste, and culture. He had a
family of fair daughters, of whom old Charles Dubarry, with his national
gallantry and proneness to exaggeration, had said, that 'they were all
the most beautiful girls in the world, and each one more beautiful than
all the others.' "Be that as it may, it is certain that there were five lovely maidens,
ranging from fifteen years to twenty-one, to choose from. Yet who can
account for human caprice, especially in such matters? The three young
men--Louis Dubarry, and John and William Berners--all fixed their
affections upon Florette Mayo, the youngest beauty.