Dross by Henry Seton Merriman, Fiction, Literary, Mystery & Detective, Action & Adventure

These are the waning days of Napoleon III, when there are still glories to be beheld in the streets and courts -- yet while a sense of impending change hangs over the boulevards. Dispossessed, Howard takes a poorly-paying post with the Vicomte de Clerisy, who lives in a quarter of Paris still blessed with ancient, gloomy streets and narrow alleys.Yet it is not for the work alone he has entered the de Clerisy household -- for he was enchanted by his first glance of the Vicomte's daughter, Lucille. Dick fears he has fatally mishandling matters, however -- for he represented himself in ways that seemed true enough, but which time is proving to be falsehoods . . . and now he has failed to patch up matters with his father, who has cut off his inheritance!Yet there is a greater mystery afoot -- something Dick Howard must understand and confront -- that will shake this peaceful-seeming Parisian household to its very core.