Bongrand, on the other hand, saw a private castle of his own demolished; he had long thought of marrying his son to Ursula.
"If the poor girl loves that youth it will be a misfortune for her," replied Bongrand after a pause.

"Madame de Portenduere is a Breton and infatuated with her noble blood." "Luckily--I mean for the honor of the Portendueres," replied the notary, on the point of betraying himself.
Let us do the faithful and upright Bongrand the justice to say that before he re-entered the salon he had abandoned, not without deep regret for his son, the hope he had cherished of some day calling Ursula his daughter.

He meant to give his son six thousand francs a year the day he was appointed substitute, and if the doctor would give Ursula a hundred thousand francs what a pearl of a home the pair would make! His Eugene was so loyal and charming a fellow! Perhaps he had praised his Eugene too often, and that had made the doctor distrustful.
"I shall have to come down to the mayor's daughter," he thought.
"But Ursula without any money is worth more than Mademoiselle Levrault-Cremiere with a million.

However, the thing to be done is to manoeuvre the marriage with this little Portenduere--if she really loves him." The doctor, after closing the door to the library and that to the garden, took his goddaughter to the window which opened upon the river.
"What ails you, my child ?" he said.

"Your life is my life.