To think that I may one day have a granddaughter calling herself Madame Daburon! You must petition the king, my friend, to change your name." If instead of intoxicating himself with dreams of happiness, this acute observer had studied the character of his idol, the effect might have been to put him upon his guard.

In the meanwhile, he noticed singular alterations in her humour.

On certain days, she was gay and careless as a child.

Then, for a week, she would remain melancholy and dejected.
Seeing her in this state the day following a ball, to which her grandmother had made a point of taking her, he dared to ask her the reason of her sadness.
"Oh! that," answered she, heaving a deep sigh, "is my secret,--a secret of which even my grandmother knows nothing." M.Daburon looked at her.

He thought he saw a tear between her long eyelashes.
"One day," continued she, "I may confide in you: it will perhaps be necessary." The magistrate was blind and deaf.