"
"Ah, then my wife succeeded?" said Minoret. "I am very glad, for it
nearly killed me."
"You are, indeed, so changed that you are no longer like yourself,"
remarked Bongrand.
Minoret looked alternately at the two men to see if the priest had
betrayed the dreams; but the abbe's face was unmoved, expressing only
a calm sadness which reassured the guilty man.
"And it is the more surprising," went on Monsieur Bongrand, "because
you ought to be filled with satisfaction. You are lord of Rouvre and
all those farms and mills and meadows and--with your investments in
the Funds, you have an income of one hundred thousand francs--"
"I haven't anything in the Funds," cried Minoret, hastily.
"Pooh," said Bongrand; "this is just as it was about your son's love
for Ursula,--first he denied it, and now he asks her in marriage.
After trying to kill Ursula with sorrow you now want her for a
daughter-in-law. My good friend, you have got some secret in your
pouch."
Minoret tried to answer; he searched for words and could find nothing
better than:--
"You're very queer, monsieur. Good-day, gentlemen"; and he turned with
a slow step into the Rue des Bourgeois.
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