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On the contrary, he looked a little grave, and rubbed his forehead. "Ah, ah!" he said; "there lies the danger." "Danger!" exclaimed Mère Giraud, starting. He turned, and regarded her with a rather hesitant air, as if he were at once puzzled and fearful, puzzled by her simplicity, and fearful of grieving her unnecessarily. "Valentin is a good lad," he said.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Monsieur and Madame Giraud. the happiest couple in Christendom; if I had done nothing else in my life but bring them together I should not have lived in vain!" The company eyed the objects of this eulogium with great attention. "Monsieur, my prayer is to deserve my bonheur," said Monsieur Giraud.
Laure was rich, and beautiful as ever; her husband adored her, and showered gifts and luxuries upon her; she had equipages and jewels; she wore velvet and satin and lace every day; she was a great lady, and had a house like a palace. Laure herself did not say so much. In her secret heart, Mère Giraud often longed for more, but she was a discreet and farseeing woman. "What would you?" she said.
One morning as they went out to their carriage Laure stopped to speak to a woman who crouched upon the edge of the pavement with a child in her arms. She bent down and touched the little one with her hand, and Mère Giraud, looking on, thought of pictures she had seen of the Blessed Virgin, and of lovely saints healing the sick. "What is the matter?" asked Laure.
Daviel, ex-Minister. Maurice Duval, ex-Prefect. Marshal Excelmans, Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor. Charles Giraud, of the Institut, member of the Court of Public Instruction, ex-Minister. Hermann. General de La Hitte, ex-Minister. Delangle, ex-Attorney-General. Lanquetin, President of the Municipal Commission. General Lawoestine. General Magnan, Commander-in-chief of the Army of Paris.
Giraud himself occasionally spent the evening at Madame Marneffe's, and she flattered herself that she should also capture Victorin Hulot; but the puritanical lawyer had hitherto found excuses for refusing to accompany his father and father-in-law. It seemed to him criminal to be seen in the house of the woman who cost his mother so many tears.
"Doubtless!" said Annot, grimly; "doubtless." Honest Jeanne Tallot passed the sneer by, and went on with stout gravity of demeanor: "There is only one thing for which I somewhat blamed Mère Giraud, and that is that I think she has scarcely done her duty toward Valentin. He disappointed her by being an ugly lad instead of a pretty girl, and she had not patience with him. Laure was the favorite.
"But one can say all this, surely, and yet work on a newspaper," said Lucien. "If I had absolutely no other way of earning a living, I should certainly come to this." "Oh! oh! oh!" cried Fulgence, his voice rising a note each time; "we are capitulating, are we?" "He will turn journalist," Leon Giraud said gravely. "Oh, Lucien, if you would only stay and work with us!
As Merceret had not heard from her mistress for some time, she thought of returning to Fribourg, and the persuasions of Giraud determined her; nay more, she intimated it was proper someone should conduct her to her father's and proposed me. As I happened to be agreeable to little Merceret, she approved the idea, and the same day they mentioned it to me as a fixed point.
"Well, well," began Mère Giraud, becoming lenient in her great happiness, "he is not a bad lad Valentin. He means well" But here she stopped, Laure checked her with a swift, impassioned movement. "He is what we cannot understand," she said in a hushed, strained voice. "He is a saint. He has no thought for himself. His whole life is a sacrifice. It is not I you should adore it is Valentin."
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