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Thus he contented himself with saying rather maliciously: "But you forget your daughter Andree and her little boy Leonce." "Oh! Andree!" replied Seguin, waving his hand as if she did not belong to him. Valentine, however, had stopped short, gazing at him fixedly.
"We'll see, we'll see," the butter dealer curtly replied. However, on reaching the house a preliminary parley as Mademoiselle Saget had opined proved to be necessary. Madame Leonce refused to allow the women to go up to her tenant's room. She put on an expression of severe austerity, and seemed greatly shocked by the sight of La Sarriette's loosely fastened fichu.
But they, the Froments, so fruitful and so prosperous, were now stricken in their turn, and their good fortune had perhaps departed forever! Mathieu shuddered; his faith in the future was shaken; he was haunted by a fear of seeing prosperity and fruitfulness vanish, now that there was that open breach. A YEAR later the first child born to Ambroise and Andree, a boy, little Leonce, was christened.
There was Andree on the left with Ambroise, who had stepped up to tease his little Leonce; and Charlotte on the right with her two children, Guillaume, who hung on her breast, and Berthe, who had sought a place among her skirts. And here, faith in life had yielded prosperity, ever-increasing, overflowing wealth, all the sovereign florescence of happy fruitfulness.
The next day, however, Mademoiselle Saget had calmed down, and again expressed much tender-hearted pity for that poor Monsieur Gavard who was so badly advised, and was certainly hastening to his ruin. Gavard was undoubtedly compromising himself. Ever since the conspiracy had begun to ripen he had carried the revolver, which caused Madame Leonce so much alarm, in his pocket wherever he went.
"Then you must have forgotten that I was Leonce Pontellier's wife." "Oh! I was demented, dreaming of wild, impossible things, recalling men who had set their wives free, we have heard of such things." "Yes, we have heard of such things." "I came back full of vague, mad intentions. And when I got here " "When you got here you never came near me!" She was still caressing his cheek.
It is true, he had been eulogized in the criticisms of Sainte-Beuve, Leonce de Lavergne, Charles Nodier, and Charles de Mazade; but he desired to make the personal acquaintance of some of these illustrious persons, as well as to see his son, who was then settled in Paris. It was therefore in some respects a visit of paternal affection as well as literary reputation.
Behind her Mademoiselle Saget on tip-toe was gazing ecstatically into the wardrobe, and Madame Leonce had now risen from her seat, and was growling sulkily. "My uncle said I was to take everything," declared the girl. "And am I to have nothing, then; I who have done so much for him?" cried the doorkeeper. Madame Lecoeur was almost choking with excitement.
There were but one-and-twenty at table under the oak tree in the middle of the lawn, which, girt with elms and hornbeams, seemed like a hall of verdure. The whole family was present: first those of the farm, then Denis the bridegroom, next Ambroise and his wife Andree, who had brought their little Leonce with them.
Next followed an overpowering refrain from the Livarots, and afterwards the Gerome, flavoured with aniseed, kept up the symphony with a high prolonged note, like that of a vocalist during a pause in the accompaniment. "I have seen Madame Leonce," Mademoiselle Saget at last continued, with a significant expression. At this the two others became extremely attentive.
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