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They were brilliantly lighted, as usual at this hour, for Mme. de la Verberie passed half the night in reading, and slept till late in the day. Enjoying the comforts of life, which are little costly in the country, the selfish countess disturbed herself very little about her daughter.
She certainly did, as her subsequent remarks proved. He saw that the would-be sentimental old lady had an eye to business. "Alas!" she sighed, "La Verberie cannot be saved by forty thousand francs; the principal and interest of the debt amount to sixty thousand." "Oh, either forty or sixty thousand is nothing worth speaking of."
The next day, a lovely spring morning, Andre Fauvel and Valentine de la Verberie were married at the village church. Early in the morning, the chateau was filled with the bride's friends, who came, according to custom, to assist at her wedding toilet. Valentine forced herself to appear calm, even smiling; but her face was whiter than her veil; her heart was torn by remorse.
And, taking from his desk a little pair of pistols, he handed them to his son, and added, with averted eyes, "You must not be captured alive, Gaston!" Gaston did not immediately descend to the park. He yearned to see Valentine, and give her one last kiss before leaving France, and determined to persuade Pilorel to stop the boat as they went by the park of La Verberie.
In this sad affair, Mme. de la Verberie mourned less over her daughter's loss of reputation, than over the ruin of her own projects projects of going to Paris, making a grand marriage for Valentine, and living in luxury the rest of her days. A young girl so compromised would not find it easy to get a husband.
I only ask you to wait ten days; and, if I cannot in that time discover the solution of this mystery, I will return and go with you to report to M. Patrigent all that we know." "Are you going to leave the city?" "In an hour I shall be on the road to Beaucaire. It was from that neighborhood that Clameran came, as well as Mme. Fauvel, who was a Mlle. de la Verberie before marriage."
On the road, she met many people coming from the town, where they had heard of the events of the previous night; and the poor girl was obliged to keep her eyes fastened to the ground in order to escape the insulting looks and mocking salutations with which the gossips passed her. When Valentine reached La Verberie, she found Mihonne waiting for her.
The doctor reflected without answering; the condition of affairs was grave. "No, madame," he finally said; "I cannot prevent your leaving La Verberie: that would be overstepping my powers. But it is my duty to hold you to account for the child. You are at liberty to go where you please; but you must give me proof of the child's living, or at least that no attempts have been made against its life."
Eve, after much counsel from her father-in-law, had bought a house called the Verberie, with three acres of land and a croft planted with vines, which lay like a wedge in the old man's vineyard. Here, with her mother and Marion, she lived a very frugal life, for five thousand francs of the purchase money still remained unpaid.
Lazet rose from his chair as if he knew his answer would exasperate Gaston, and that from words they would come to blows. "I did," he said, with an insolent smile: "I mentioned the name of the pretty little fairy of La Verberie." All the coffee-drinkers, and even two travelling agents who were dining in the cafe, rose and surrounded the two young men.
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