The infinite love he bore his daughter suggested a bold project to his mind.

One only being in all the world could make her happy; that man was Etienne.

Assuredly, the angelic son of Jeanne de Saint-Savin and the guileless daughter of Gertrude Marana were twin beings.

All other women would frighten and kill the heir of Herouville; and Gabrielle, so Beauvouloir argued, would perish by contact with any man in whom sentiments and external forms had not the virgin delicacy of those of Etienne.

Certainly the poor physician had never dreamed of such a result; chance had brought it forward and seemed to ordain it.