Your hesitation in confiding to me these first
emotions shows me you would suffer cruel torture rather than admit to
Savinien--"
"Oh, yes!" she said.
"But, my child, you must do more. You must repress these feelings; you
must forget them."
"Why?"
"Because, my darling, you must love only the man you marry; and, even
if Monsieur Savinien de Portenduere loved you--"
"I never thought of it."
"But listen: even if he loved you, even if his mother asked me to give
him your hand, I should not consent to the marriage until I had
subjected him to a long and thorough probation. His conduct has been
such as to make families distrust him and to put obstacles between
himself and heiresses which cannot be easily overcome."
A soft smile came in place of tears on Ursula's sweet face as she
said, "Then poverty is good sometimes."
The doctor could find no answer to such innocence.
"What has he done, godfather?" she asked.
"In two years, my treasure, he has incurred one hundred and twenty
thousand francs of debt. He has had the folly to get himself locked up
in Saint-Pelagie, the debtor's prison; an impropriety which will
always be, in these days, a discredit to him.
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