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Updated: June 8, 2025
Félicité would invariably thwart their ruses and they held her in great respect. At various times, Madame Aubain received a visit from the Marquis de Grémanville, one of her uncles, who was ruined and lived at Falaise on the remainder of his estates. He always came at dinner-time and brought an ugly poodle with him, whose paws soiled the furniture.
"Don't be afraid," cried Félicité; and murmuring a sort of lament she passed her hand over the back of the nearest ox; he turned away and the others followed. But when they came to the next pasture, they heard frightful bellowing. It was a bull which was hidden from them by the fog. He advanced towards the two women, and Madame Aubain prepared to flee for her life.
Her foolishness annoyed Madame Aubain, who, moreover did not like the nephew's familiarity, for he called her son "thou"; and, as Virginia began to cough and the season was over, she decided to return to Pont-l'Evêque. Monsieur Bourais assisted her in the choice of a college. The one at Caën was considered the best.
Then Madame Aubain had a fainting spell, and that evening all her friends, including the two Lormeaus, Madame Lechaptois, the ladies Rochefeuille, Messieurs de Houppeville and Bourais, called on her and tendered their sympathy. At first the separation proved very painful to her. But her daughter wrote her three times a week and the other days she, herself, wrote to Virginia.
Paul and Virginia, the one aged seven, and the other barely four, seemed made of some precious material; she carried them pig-a-back, and was greatly mortified when Madame Aubain forbade her to kiss them every other minute. But in spite of all this, she was happy. The comfort of her new surroundings had obliterated her sadness.
Madame Aubain and the children, huddled at the end of the field, were trying to jump over the ditch. Felicite continued to back before the bull, blinding him with dirt, while she shouted to them to make haste.
She had put him on the grass to cool him and went away only for a second; when she returned, she found no parrot! She hunted among the bushes, on the bank of the river, and on the roofs, without paying any attention to Madame Aubain who screamed at her: "Take care! you must be insane!"
So Paul was sent away and bravely said good-bye to them all, for he was glad to go to live in a house where he would have boy companions. Madame Aubain resigned herself to the separation from her son because it was unavoidable. Virginia brooded less and less over it.
The following day, she presented herself early at the church so as to receive communion from the curé. She took it with the proper feeling, but did not experience the same delight as on the previous day. Madame Aubain wished to make an accomplished girl of her daughter; and as Guyot could not teach English nor music, she decided to send her to the Ursulines at Honfleur.
A note from the baroness told Madame Aubain that as her husband had been promoted to a prefecture, they were leaving that night, and she begged her to accept the bird as a remembrance and a token of her esteem. Since a long time the parrot had been on Félicité's mind, because he came from America, which reminded her of Victor, and she had approached the negro on the subject.
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