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Updated: July 22, 2025
Valentine might have soothed the sorrow of the faithful servant, by telling him Gaston still lived; but she feared it would be indiscreet, and, unfortunately, said nothing. "Can I see M. Louis?" she asked after a long silence. This question seemed to arouse all the anger slumbering in the breast of poor St. Jean. "You! You would dare take such a step, Mlle. de la Verberie?
"I am hunting for the heiress of a Dutchman named Gobseck it is the same name with a transposition of consonants." "Well," said Corentin, "you shall have information as to her parentage on my return to Paris." An hour later, the two agents for the Grandlieu family set out for La Verberie, where Monsieur and Madame Sechard were living.
At the hour when the two strangers were arriving, a party of four persons were being entertained in the drawing-room of La Verberie: the cure of Marsac, a young priest of five-and-twenty, who, at Madame Sechard's request, had become tutor to her little boy Lucien; the country doctor, Monsieur Marron; the Maire of the commune; and an old colonel, who grew roses on a plot of land opposite to La Verberie on the other side of the road.
The Countess de la Verberie, the "bete noire" of the marquis, as he ungallantly termed her, was a tall, dry woman, angular in appearance and character, cold and arrogant toward her equals, and domineering over her inferiors. Like her noble neighbor, she too had emigrated; and her husband was afterward killed at Lutzen, but unfortunately not in the French ranks.
After leaving Valentine de la Verberie, Gaston underwent great peril and difficulty in effecting his escape. But for the experienced and faithful Menoul, he never would have succeeded in embarking.
But Gaston's mind was undisturbed as to the character of the people with whom his lot was cast for several months. It was only his miserable wounded body, that the vessel was carrying to a new country. His heart and soul rested in the shady park of La Verberie, beside his lovely Valentine.
On reflection, however, when he had studied the character of the nobility in the neighborhood, who were rich in nothing but prejudices, he clearly saw that pecuniary considerations alone would be strong enough to decide the proud Countess de la Verberie to grant him her daughter's hand.
He was above the park of La Verberie; would he be able to swim there, granting that he was not swept away and drowned the instant he plunged into the angry torrent before him? He pictured Valentine, at this very moment, watching, waiting, and praying for him on the other shore. "For the last time I command you to surrender!" cried the corporal.
"You will see how things will go with my children when I am under ground. Lord! it makes me shudder to think of it." Old Sechard died in the month of March, 1929, leaving about two hundred thousand francs in land. His acres added to the Verberie made a fine property, which Kolb had managed to admiration for some two years.
La Verberie was already spoken of in the neighborhood as a chateau, and Eve Sechard was known as the Lady of Marsac. Lucien, while flattering her vanity, had only followed the example of the peasants and vine-dressers.
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