I can refuse her nothing.

She has chosen the Glandier." Interrogated in her turn, the young girl replied calmly: "Where could we work better than in this solitude ?" For Mademoiselle Stangerson had already begun to collaborate with her father in his work.

It could not at the time be imagined that her passion for science would lead her so far as to refuse all the suitors who presented themselves to her for over fifteen years.

So secluded was the life led by the two, father and daughter, that they showed themselves only at a few official receptions and, at certain times in the year, in two or three friendly drawing-rooms, where the fame of the professor and the beauty of Mathilde made a sensation.

The young girl's extreme reserve did not at first discourage suitors; but at the end of a few years, they tired of their quest.
One alone persisted with tender tenacity and deserved the name of "eternal fiance," a name he accepted with melancholy resignation; that was Monsieur Robert Darzac.