And she had consented with an impulse of gratitude and affection which seemed so sweet that she thought it the sweetness of love itself.

Everybody around her, too, appeared so pleased at the prospect of this marriage, which would draw the family yet more closely together.

And, on her side, she had been as it were intoxicated by the idea of making others happy.
"What is the matter ?" she now asked Guillaume in a somewhat anxious voice.

"No bad news, I hope ?" "No, no," he answered.

"I've simply something to say to you." Then he led her under the plum-trees to the only green nook left in the garden.