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This bonnet was constructed under her own eye and by the hands of her nieces, out of green Florence silk bought at Guerande, and an old bonnet-shape, renewed every five years at Nantes, for Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel allowed her bonnets the longevity of a legislature. Her nieces also made her gowns, cut by an immutable pattern.
The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at Nantes, caused by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in colonial products, deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which they had just deposited with that house. The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. Her pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel.
All Pen-Hoel saw him he was called respectfully Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the Catholic army spending his days and his evenings in the Lorrains' parlor, beside the window of the imperial major.
The Guerande doctor calmly told the baroness that as to Calyste, it would probably be best to take him to Paris and consult the most experienced physicians, for it would cost over a hundred louis to bring one down. "People die of something, but not of love," said Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel. "Alas! whatever be the cause, Calyste is dying," said the baroness.
"Yesterday the trouble was, I believe, in your legs," said the rector. "It moves about," replied the chevalier. "Legs to ribs?" asked Mademoiselle Zephirine. "Without stopping on the way?" said Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel, smiling.
Major Lorrain was killed at the battle of Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a little daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the pension to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her late husband's parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail shopkeepers at Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that part of it which is called the Marais.
Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel could not help laughing at her niece's gesture; but neither the chevalier nor the baron paid any heed to this truly provincial satire against Paris. "But the Marquise de Rochefide is a very handsome woman," said the old maid. "My dear," said the baroness to her husband, "I happen to know that she is going over to Croisic to-morrow.
"The young girls and the old women all say that he is in love with Mademoiselle des Touches." "A lad of Calyste's make is playing his proper part in making the women love him," said the baron. "Here comes Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel," said Mariotte. The gravel in the court-yard crackled under the discreet footsteps of the coming lady, who was accompanied by a page supplied with a lantern.
Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel treated Calyste as if she felt that her intentions gave her certain rights over him; her plans seemed to authorize a supervision. Not that her ideas were strict in the matter of gallantry, for she had, in fact, the usual indulgence of the old women of the old school, but she held in horror the modern ways of revolutionary morals.
Marry Charlotte de Kergarouet and release two-thirds of the estate. By selling a few farms, Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel can bestow that grand result upon you in the marriage contract, and she will also help you, with her experience, to make the most of your property. You will be able to leave your children a great name, and a fine estate."
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