"Marriage will emancipate you." "Why should I be emancipated ?" asked Marguerite.
"Because marriage will put you at once into possession of your property, my dear little cousin," said the lawyer in a tone of triumph.

"If you marry you take your share of your mother's property.

To give it to you, the whole property must be liquidated; to do that, it becomes necessary to sell the forest of Waignies.

That done, the proceeds will be capitalized, and your father, as guardian, will be compelled to invest the fortune of his children in such a way that Chemistry can't get hold of it." "And if I do not marry, what will happen ?" she asked.
"Well," said the notary, "your father will manage your estate as he pleases.

If he returns to making gold, he will probably sell the timber of the forest of Waignies and leave his children as naked as the little Saint Johns.