We young girls have only two ways
to act; we must let a man know we love him by mincing and simpering,
or we must go to him frankly. Isn't the last way grand and noble? We
French girls are delivered over by our families like so much
merchandise, at sixty days' sight, sometimes thirty, like Mademoiselle
Vilquin; but in England, and Switzerland, and Germany, they follow
very much the plan I have adopted. Now what have you got to say to
that? Am I not half German?"
"Child!" cried the colonel, looking at her; "the supremacy of France
comes from her sound common-sense, from the logic to which her noble
language constrains her mind. France is the reason of the whole world.
England and Germany are romantic in their marriage customs,--though
even there noble families follow our customs. You certainly do not
mean to deny that your parents, who know life, who are responsible for
your soul and for your happiness, have no right to guard you from the
stumbling-blocks that are in your way? Good heavens!" he continued,
speaking half to himself, "is it their fault, or is it ours? Ought we
to hold our children under an iron yoke? Must we be punished for the
tenderness that leads us to make them happy, and teaches our hearts
how to do so?"
Modeste watched her father out of the corner of her eye as she
listened to this species of invocation, uttered in a broken voice.
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