And she has such beautiful hair, the poor child!" And the baroness melted into tears; then addressing the count in the midst of her sobs: "You'll not be very unhappy either, by the way; she is a goddess!" Monsieur de Lucan, though deeply moved by this family tableau, and above all, by Clotilde's joy, took more coolly that unexpected event.

Besides that he did not generally show himself very demonstrative in public, he was sad and anxious at heart.

The future prospects of this marriage seemed extremely uncertain to him, and in his profound friendship for the count he felt alarmed.

He had not ventured, through a sentiment of delicate reserve toward Julia, upon telling him all he thought of her character and disposition.

He strove to banish from his mind as partial and unjust the opinion he had formed of her; but still he could not help remembering the terrible child he had known once, at times wild as a hurricane, at others pensive and wrapped in gloomy reserve; he tried to imagine her such as she had been described to him since; tall, handsome, ascetic; then he fancied her suddenly casting her vail to the winds, like one of the fantastic nuns in "Robert le Diable," and returning swift-footed into the world; of all these various impressions he composed, in spite of himself, a figure of Chimera and Sphinx, which he found very difficult to connect with the idea of domestic happiness.
They discussed in the family circle, during the whole evening, the complications which might arise from that marriage project, and the means of avoiding them.