This manoeuvre succeeded each time, although Madame Desvarennes had seen through it from the first.

It appeared as if the mother felt a secret joy in proving under all circumstances the unbounded adoration which she felt for her daughter.

She often said: "Pretty as she is, and rich as I shall make her, what husband will be worthy of Micheline?
But if she believes me when it is time to choose one, she will prefer a man remarkable for his intelligence, and will give him her fortune as a stepping-stone to raise him as high as she chooses him to go." Inwardly she was thinking of Pierre Delarue, who had just taken honors at the Polytechnic school, and who seemed to have a brilliant career before him.

This woman, humbly born, was proud of her origin, and sought a plebeian for her son-in-law, to put into his hand a golden tool powerful enough to move the world.
Micheline was ten years old when her father died.

Alas, Michel was not a great loss.