"
"Don't say two young men, wife; say three!" cried little Latournelle,
looking round him. "Gobenheim is not here, so I can speak out."
Modeste raised her head, and everybody, imitating Modeste, raised
theirs and looked at the notary.
"Yes, a third lover--and he is something like a lover--offers himself
as a candidate."
"Bah!" exclaimed the colonel.
"I speak of no less a person," said Latournelle, pompously, "than
Monsieur le Duc d'Herouville, Marquis de Saint-Sever, Duc de Nivron,
Comte de Bayeux, Vicomte d'Essigny, grand equerry and peer of France,
knight of the Spur and the Golden Fleece, grandee of Spain, and son of
the last governor of Normandy. He saw Mademoiselle Modeste at the time
when he was staying with the Vilquins, and he regretted then--as his
notary, who came from Bayeux yesterday, tells me--that she was not
rich enough for him; for his father recovered nothing but the estate
of Herouville on his return to France, and that is saddled with a
sister. The young duke is thirty-three years old. I am definitively
charged to lay these proposals before you, Monsieur le comte," added
the notary, turning respectfully to the colonel.
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