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Updated: July 9, 2025
'It is incredible, said Madame Verine, and then there was a pause of great astonishment. 'It is impossible! cried the Russian lady, who had come in. 'It is true, said the bridegroom hoarsely; and he wept. And now Céleste herself came into the house. She came within the room, and looked at the ladies, who stood with hands upraised, and at her weeping husband.
'It is true, she said, with gentle joy, and she stood before them breathless and blushing. 'It will be three years before you are twenty-one, said Madame Verine; 'you will remain with me. 'If you please, madam, no, said Céleste, modestly casting down her eyes; 'I must go to my native village. 'How! they cried. 'To whom will you go? Céleste blushed the more deeply, and twisted her apron.
Marie Verine was a good girl, but she was not beautiful or clever. She lived with her mother in one flat of an ordinary-looking house in a small Swiss town. Had they been poorer or richer there might have been something picturesque about their way of life, but, as it was, there was nothing. Their pleasures were few and simple; yet they were happier than most people are but this they did not know.
In about a week the notary called on Madame Verine a second time; he greeted her with all ceremony, and then he sat down on a little stiff chair and explained his business in his own brief, dry way. Marie was not there. The little salon, all polished and shining, gave faint lights and shadows in answer to every movement of its inmates.
In the morning they went out, dressed in their best, to see the notary. An hour later Madame Verine sat in her little salon. The floor was of polished wood; it shone in the morning light; so did all the polished curves of the chairs and cabinets. Marie was practising exercises on the piano. They heard a heavy step on the stair.
When summer days grew long, Madame Verine, her friend and daughter, took a day's holiday, and out of good nature they went to see Céleste. 'Céleste lives like a grand lady now, cried the innkeeper's wife, on being questioned. 'She will have me take her coffee to her in bed each morning. 'The wages she has saved will not hold out long, said the visitors.
When Madame Verine took the letter she found told therein that an aunt of Céleste, who had lived far off in the Jura, was dead, and had left to Céleste a little fortune of five thousand francs, which was to be paid to her when she was twenty-one, or on her marriage day. 'Ah, cried Céleste, weeping, 'can it be true? Can it be true? 'Of course, since monsieur the notary says so.
'It is a pity we are not richer and have not more friends, Madame Verine would remark, 'for then we could perhaps get Marie a husband; as it is, there is no chance. Madame Verine usually made this remark to the Russian lady who lived upstairs. The Russian lady had a name that could not be pronounced; she spoke many languages, and took an interest in everything. She would reply 'No husband!
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