I will not be notary; I shall give that up; I shall study the
sciences."
"Why?"
"Ah, mademoiselle, to train up your children, if you will deign to
make me their tutor. But, oh! if you would only listen to some advice.
Let me take up this matter; let me look into the life and habits of
this man,--find out if he is kind, or bad-tempered, or gentle, if he
commands the respect which you merit in a husband, if he is able to
love utterly, preferring you to everything, even his own talent--"
"What does that signify if I love him?"
"Ah, true!" cried the dwarf.
At that instant Madame Mignon was saying to her friends,--
"My daughter saw the man she loves this morning."
"Then it must have been that sulphur waistcoat which puzzled you so,
Latournelle," said his wife. "The young man had a pretty white rose in
his buttonhole."
"Ah!" sighed the mother, "the sign of recognition."
"And he also wore the ribbon of an officer of the Legion of honor. He
is a charming young man. But we are all deceiving ourselves; Modeste
never raised her veil, and her clothes were huddled on like a
beggar-woman's--"
"And she said she was ill," cried the notary; "but she has taken off
her mufflings and is just as well as she ever was.
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