You were then in love with nobody, and you accepted the offer like a sensible girl, feeling certain that I should render you happy, and that the union was a right and satisfactory one....

But since then my brother has come here; love has sprung up in your heart in quite a natural way; and it is Pierre, Pierre alone, whom you love as a lover and a husband should be loved." Exhausted though she was, utterly distracted, too, by the light which, despite herself, was dawning within her, Marie still stubbornly and desperately protested.
"But why do you struggle like this against the truth, my child ?" said Guillaume; "I do not reproach you.

It was I who chose that this should happen, like the old madman I am.

What was bound to come has come, and doubtless it is for the best.

I only wanted to learn the truth from you in order that I might take a decision and act uprightly." These words vanquished her, and her tears gushed forth.