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This cruel event convulsed the whole town of Nemours. The crowds standing about the gate of the Minoret house were the first to tell Savinien that his vengeance had been taken by a hand more powerful than his own. He went at once to Ursula's house, where he found both the abbe and the young girl more distressed than surprised.
Before long the rich bourgeois, who still met in Dionis's salon, noticed a great change in the manners and behavior of the man who had hitherto been so free of care. "I don't know what has come to Minoret, he is all no how," said his wife, from whom he was resolved to hide his daring deed.
Minoret looked alternately at the two men to see if the priest had betrayed the dreams; but the abbe's face was unmoved, expressing only a calm sadness which reassured the guilty man. "And it is the more surprising," went on Monsieur Bongrand, "because you ought to be filled with satisfaction.
But before risking this last throw in the game he thought it best to have an explanation with Minoret, and he chose his opportunity at Rouvre, where he went with his patron for the first time after the deeds were signed.
I certainly am not here to frighten you; but you ought to know what he said " "I can't be easy anywhere, Monsieur Chaperon, not even among these rocks, and I'm sure I don't want to know anything that is going on in another world." "Then I will leave you, monsieur; I did not take this hot walk for pleasure," said the abbe, mopping his forehead. "Well, what do you want to say?" demanded Minoret.
"Are you speaking of that little Minoret?" "That little Minoret is eighty-three years old," said the abbe, smiling. "My dear lady, do have a little Christian charity; don't wound him, he might be useful to you in other ways." "What ways?" "He has an angel in his house; a precious young girl " "Oh! that little Ursula. What of that?"
I'd like to know why, if Doctor Minoret hates priests, he has spent nearly every evening for the last fifteen years of his life with the Abbe Chaperon. The old hypocrite never fails to give Ursula twenty francs for wax tapers every time she takes the sacrament. Have you forgotten the gift Ursula made to the church in gratitude to the cure for preparing her for her first communion?
"Monsieur, will you give this dear hand to a naval captain?" he said to the doctor in a low voice. "No," said Minoret, smiling; "we might have to wait too long, but I will give her to a lieutenant." Tears of joy filled the young man's eyes as he pressed the doctor's hand affectionately.
Just then Ursula came to say that Monsieur Dionis wished to speak to the doctor. "Already!" cried Minoret, looking at Bongrand. "Yes," he said to Ursula, "send him here." "I'll bet my spectacles to a bunch of matches that he is the advance-guard of your heirs," said Bongrand. "They breakfasted together at the post house, and something is being engineered."
"Yes, either you or your son, who has just sworn at Fontainebleau, in presence of four persons and the procureur du roi, that he has never even thought of his cousin Ursula. You have other reasons for offering this fortune. I saw you were inventing that tale, and went myself to Fontainebleau to question your son." Minoret was dumbfounded at his own folly.