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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.
"Your aunt is right, my darling; she plans for your happiness with as much anxiety as I do myself. If I do not succeed in marrying you to my niece, Margaret, the daughter of your uncle, Lord Fitzwilliam, it is almost certain that Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel will leave her fortune to whichever of her nieces you may choose."
The rector, who appeared to be well-informed in the matter of Calyste and Mademoiselle des Touches, did not enter the lists. "What does she do that is so extraordinary, Mademoiselle des Touches?" asked the baron. "She smokes," replied Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel. "That's very wholesome," said the chevalier. "About her property?" asked the baron. "Her property?" continued the old maid.
You can always find a match of seven thousand francs a year for the dear boy, but it is not often that you could come across the savings of forty years and landed property as well managed, built up, and kept in repair as that of Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel. That ungodly woman, Mademoiselle des Touches, has come here to ruin many excellent things. Her life is now known."
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.
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.
"Poor lady! is she legally separated?" "No, by mutual consent," replied Camille. "Ah, well! I understand that," said the viscountess boldly. Old Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel, furious at being thus dragged into the enemy's camp, had retreated to a short distance with her dear Charlotte.
The baroness listened to the rector, who was substituting monologue for dialogue unconsciously as he looked at this lamb of his fold, on whose face could be read her anxiety. She colored and trembled. When the worthy man saw the tears in the beautiful eyes of the mother, he was moved to compassion. "I will see Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel to-morrow," he said. "Don't be too uneasy.
This morning the Kergarouet cousin who wants to marry Charlotte to a man with sixty thousand francs a year, went to see Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel, and filled her mind with tales about Mademoiselle des Touches which lasted seven hours. It is now striking a quarter to ten, and Calyste is not home; he is at Les Touches, perhaps he won't come in all night."
Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel's page went gravely to open the door, and presently the long, lean, methodically-clothed person of the Chevalier du Halga, former flag-captain to Admiral de Kergarouet, defined itself in black on the penumbra of the portico. "Welcome, chevalier!" cried Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel. "The altar is raised," said the abbe.
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