What ill-luck for his son!"
"No one knows," said Charles Mignon, coldly, "what my liabilities in
India are; and I do not intend to take the public into my confidence
as to my private affairs. Dumay," he whispered to his friend, "if
Vilquin is embarrassed we could get back the villa by paying him what
he gave for it."
Such was the general state of things, due chiefly to accident, when on
Sunday morning Canalis and La Briere arrived, with a courier in
advance, at the villa of Madame Amaury. It was known that the Duc
d'Herouville, his sister, and his aunt were coming the following
Tuesday to occupy, also under pretext of ill-health, a hired house at
Graville. This assemblage of suitors made the wits of the Bourse
remark that, thanks to Mademoiselle Mignon, rents would rise at
Ingouville. "If this goes on, she will have a hospital here," said the
younger Mademoiselle Vilquin, vexed at not becoming a duchess.
The everlasting comedy of "The Heiress," about to be played at the
Chalet, might very well be called, in view of Modeste's frame of mind,
"The Designs of a Young Girl"; for since the overthrow of her
illusions she had fully made up her mind to give her hand to no man
whose qualifications did not fully satisfy her.
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