When
Marguerite, expert in love, reached an understanding of the real state
of Felicie's heart, she wound up their talk by saying:--
"Well, dear child, let us make sure he truly loves you, and--then--"
"Ah!" cried Felicie, laughing, "leave me to my own devices; I have a
model before my eyes."
"Saucy child!" exclaimed Marguerite, kissing her.
Though Pierquin belonged to the class of men who regard marriage as
the accomplishment of a social duty and the means of transmitting
property, and though he was indifferent to which sister he should
marry so long as both had the same name and the same dower, he did
perceive that the two were, to use his own expression, "romantic and
sentimental girls," adjectives employed by commonplace people to
ridicule the gifts which Nature sows with grudging hand along the
furrows of humanity. The lawyer no doubt said to himself that he had
better swim with the stream; and accordingly the next day he came to
see Marguerite, and took her mysteriously into the little garden,
where he began to talk sentiment,--that being one of the clauses of
the primal contract which, according to social usage, must precede the
notarial contract.
"Dear cousin," he said, "you and I have not always been of one mind as
to the best means of bringing your affairs to a happy conclusion; but
you do now, I am sure, admit that I have always been guided by a great
desire to be useful to you.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245