Ferrols's recovery from his injuries was swifter than might have been expected.

As soon as he was able to move about Christine was his constant attendant.

She had made herself his nurse, and no one had seriously interfered, though the Cure had not at all vaguely offered a protest to Madame Lavilette.

But Madame Lavilette was now in the humour to defy or evade the Cure, whichever seemed the more convenient or more necessary.

To be linked by marriage with the nobility would indeed be the justification of all her long-baffled hopes.