If she cannot admire, she despises. And so, after passing
through terrible struggles of the soul, Modeste necessarily put on the
armor on which, as she had once declared, the word "Disdain" was
engraved. After reaching that point she was able, in the character of
uninterested spectator, to take part in what she was pleased to call
the "farce of the suitors," a performance in which she herself was
about to play the role of heroine. She particularly set before her
mind the satisfaction of humiliating Monsieur de La Briere.
"Modeste is saved," said Madame Mignon to her husband; "she wants to
revenge herself on the false Canalis by trying to love the real one."
Such in truth was Modeste's plan. It was so utterly commonplace that
her mother, to whom she confided her griefs, advised her on the
contrary to treat Monsieur de La Briere with extreme politeness.
CHAPTER XVII
A THIRD SUITOR
"Those two young men," said Madame Latournelle, on the Saturday
evening, "have no idea how many spies they have on their tracks. We
are eight in all, on the watch.
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