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He departed in triumph from the d'Arlange abode, which he had entered with a heart swelling with anxiety. He walked with his head erect, his chest dilated, and breathing the fresh air with the full strength of his lungs. He was so happy! The sky appeared to him more blue, the sun more brilliant.
It was truly Mademoiselle d'Arlange. This young girl, usually so proud and reserved, had had the courage to come to his house alone, or almost so, for her governess, whom she had left in the ante-room, could hardly count. She was evidently obeying some powerful emotion, since it made her forget her habitual timidity.
This name, my dear friend, is simply ridiculous. Do you think it will be easy to make a Daburon of a young girl who for nearly eighteen years has been called d'Arlange?" This objection did not seem to trouble the magistrate. "After all," continued the old lady, "your father gained a Cottevise, so you may win a d'Arlange.
It was thus that I replied to him; and he, so sad, immediately recovered his gaiety. He thanked me, saying, 'You love me; the rest is of no consequence. I chided him, then, for having doubted me; and after that, you pretend that he cowardly assassinated an old woman? You would not dare repeat it." Mademoiselle d'Arlange ceased speaking, a smile of victory on her lips.
"And do you think that Madame d'Arlange will give her granddaughter to M. Gerdy?" "We hope so, sir. The marchioness is sufficiently infected with aristocratic ideas to prefer a nobleman's bastard to the son of some honest tradesman; but should she refuse, we would await her death, though without desiring it." The calm manner in which Albert said this enraged the count.
However, he thought it best to let them off the punishment they so richly deserved; and ended by suggesting that it would perhaps be prudent, wise, noble even to pay. The unfortunate word "pay" brought Madame d'Arlange to her feet in the fiercest attitude. "Pay!" she screamed. "In order that these scoundrels may persist in their obduracy! Encourage them by a culpable weakness! Never!
While Mademoiselle d'Arlange sat down rather surprised, the count, much embarrassed at his position, went up to the priest, and asked in a low voice, "What is, I pray, M. l'Abbe; Madame Gerdy's condition?" The doctor, who had a sharp ear, heard the question, and approached quickly.
He rushed to his wife's apartments. "Madame has just gone down to receive the Countess de Mussidan and the Marquise d'Arlange," said the maid. "Very well; I will wait for her here. Retire." And Martial entered the chamber of Mme. Blanche. The room was in disorder, for the duchess, after returning from the Poivriere, was still engaged in her toilet when the visitors were announced.
This evening, at your house, I shall have the honour of giving you an account of my proceedings. Perhaps I shall be able to bring Albert with me." He spoke, and, again embracing the dead woman, went out. Soon the count and Mademoiselle d'Arlange also retired. The old soldier went to the Mayor, to give notice of the death, and to fulfil the necessary formalities.
Some months later, one evening, at old Mademoiselle de Goello's house, the Marchioness d'Arlange, looking ten years younger than when we saw her last, was giving her dowager friends an account of the wedding of her granddaughter Claire, who had just married the Viscount Albert de Commarin. "The wedding," said she, "took place on our estate in Normandy, without any flourish of trumpets.
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