Modeste watched her father out of the corner of her eye as she listened to this species of invocation, uttered in a broken voice.
"Was it wrong," she said, "in a girl whose heart was free, to choose for her husband not only a charming companion, but a man of noble genius, born to an honorable position, a gentleman; the equal of myself, a gentlewoman?"
"You love him?" asked her father.
"Father!" she said, laying her head upon his breast, "would you see me die?"
"Enough!" said the old soldier. "I see your love is inextinguishable."
"Yes, inextinguishable."
"Can nothing change it?"
"Nothing."
"No circumstances, no treachery, no betrayal? You mean that you will love him in spite of everything, because of his personal attractions?
Even though he proved a D'Estourny, would you love him still?"
"Oh, my father! you do not know your daughter. Could I love a coward, a man without honor, without faith?"
"But suppose he had deceived you?"
"He? that honest, candid soul, half melancholy? You are joking, father, or else you have never met him."
"But you see now that your love is not inextinguishable, as you chose to call it. I have already made you admit that circumstances could alter your poem; don't you now see that fathers are good for something?"
"You want to give me a lecture, papa; it is positively l'Ami des Enfants over again."
"Poor deceived girl," said her father, sternly; "it is no lecture of mine, I count for nothing in it; indeed, I am only trying to soften the blow."
"Father, don't play tricks with my life," exclaimed Modeste, turning pale.
"Then, my daughter, summon all your courage. It is you who have been playing tricks with your life, and life is now tricking you."
Modeste looked at her father in stupid amazement.
"Suppose that young man whom you love, whom you saw four days ago at church in Havre, was a deceiver?"
"Never!" she cried; "that noble head, that pale face full of poetry--"
"--was a lie," said the colonel interrupting her. "He was no more Monsieur de Canalis than I am that sailor over there putting out to sea."
"Do you know what you are killing in me?" she said in a low voice.
"Comfort yourself, my child; though accident has put the punishment of your fault into the fault itself, the harm done is not irreparable.
The young man whom you have seen, and with whom you exchanged hearts by correspondence, is a loyal and honorable fellow; he came to me and confided everything. He loves you, and I have no objection to him as a son-in-law."
"If he is not Canalis, who is he then?" said Modeste in a changed voice.
"The secretary; his name is Ernest de La Briere. He is not a nobleman;
but he is one of those plain men with fixed principles and sound morality who satisfy parents. However, that is not the point; you have seen him and nothing can change your heart; you have chosen him, comprehend his soul, it is as beautiful as he himself."
The count was interrupted by a heavy sigh from Modeste. The poor girl sat with her eyes fixed on the sea, pale and rigid as death, as if a pistol shot had struck her in those fatal words, A PLAIN MAN, WITH
FIXED PRINCIPLES AND SOUND MORALITY.
"Deceived!" she said at last.
"Like your poor sister, but less fatally."
"Let us go home, father," she said, rising from the hillock on which they were sitting. "Papa, hear me, I swear before God to obey your wishes, whatever they may be, in the AFFAIR of my marriage."
"Then you don't love him any longer?" asked her father.
