This was nothing less than killing his love, by immediately getting Claudet married to Reine Vincart.
Sacrifices like this are easier to souls that have been subjected since their infancy to Christian discipline, and accustomed to consider the renunciation of mundane joys as a means of securing eternal salvation.
As soon as this idea had developed in Julien's brain, he seized upon it with the precipitation of a drowning man, who distractedly lays hold of the first object that seems to offer him a means of safety, whether it be a dead branch or a reed.
"Listen," he resumed; "at the very first explanation that we had together, I told you I did not intend to deprive you of your right to a portion of your natural father's inheritance.

Until now, you have taken my word for it, and we have lived at the chateau like two brothers.

But now that a miserable question of money alone prevents you from marrying the woman you love, it is important that you should be legally provided for.

We will go to-morrow to Monsieur Arbillot, and ask him to draw up the deed, making over to you from me one half of the fortune of Claude de Buxieres.

You will then be, by law, and in the eyes of all, one of the desirable matches of the canton, and you can demand the hand of Mademoiselle Vincart, without any fear of being thought presumptuous or mercenary." Claudet, to whom this conclusion was wholly unexpected, was thunderstruck.