Prudence kept La Briere from seeming anxious about the
Vilquins; the postmaster was already looking at him slyly.
"Is there there any one staying with them at the present moment," he
asked, "besides the family?"
"The d'Herouville family is there just now. They do talk of a marriage
between the young duke and the remaining Mademoiselle Vilquin."
"Ha!" thought Ernest; "there was a celebrated Cardinal d'Herouville
under the Valois, and a terrible marshal whom they made a duke in the
time of Henri IV."
Ernest returned to Paris having seen enough of Modeste to dream of
her, and to think that, whether she were rich or whether she were
poor, if she had a noble soul he would like to make her Madame de La
Briere; and so thinking, he resolved to continue the correspondence.
Ah! you poor women of France, try to remain hidden if you can; try to
weave the least little romance about your lives in the midst of a
civilization which posts in the public streets the hours when the
coaches arrive and depart; which counts all letters and stamps them
twice over, first with the hour when they are thrown into the boxes,
and next with that of their delivery; which numbers the houses, prints
the tax of every tenant on a metal register at the doors (after
verifying its particulars), and will soon possess one vast register of
every inch of its territory down to the smallest parcel of land, and
the most insignificant features of it,--a giant work ordained by a
giant.
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