Madame Sibilet the younger spent most of her time at her father's home with her two children, where Adolphe Sibilet, whose official duty obliged him to travel through the department, came to see her from time to time.
Gaubertin's exclamation, though easy to understand from this summary of young Sibilet's life, needs a few more explanatory details.
Adolphe Sibilet, supremely unlucky, as we have shown by the foregoing sketch of him, was one of those men who cannot reach the heart of a woman except by way of the altar and the mayor's office.

Endowed with the suppleness of a steel-spring, he yielded to pressure, certain to revert to his first thought.

This treacherous habit is prompted by cowardice; but the business training which Sibilet underwent in the office of a provincial notary had taught him the art of concealing this defect under a gruff manner which simulated a strength he did not possess.

Many false natures mask their hollowness in this way; be rough with them in return and the effect produced is that of a balloon collapsed by a prick.

Such was Sibilet.