I shall make no protestations, but shall let the future show how sincere is my devotion to your interests." Madame Rapally was too happy, too certain of being loved, not to pardon easily.

With the self-complacency and factitious generosity of a woman who feels herself the object of two violent passions, she was so good as to feel pity for the lover who was left out in the cold, and offered him her hand.

Trumeau kissed it with every outward mark of respect, while his lips curled unseen in a smite of mockery.

The cousins parted, apparently the best of friends, and on the understanding that Trumeau would be present at the nuptial benediction, which was to be given in a church beyond the town hall, near the house in which the newly-married couple were to live; the house on the Pont Saint-Michel having lately been sold to great advantage.
"On my word," said Trumeau, as he went off, "it would have been a great mistake to have spoken.

I have got that wretch of a Quennebert into my clutches at last; and there is nobody but himself to blame.