'
'What has that to do with it?' said his aunt. 'There is not much
blood in France with which a Montmorency Bourbon can match.
Moreover, they say the child is devote, and entetee on Madam de Port
Royal, who is more than suspected of being outree in her devotion; so
the sooner she is married the better!'
Poor beautiful girl, how I pitied her then! Her lovely, wistful,
blue eyes haunted me all night, in the midst of my own gladness; for
a courier had come that evening bringing my father's reply. He said
my mother deplored my unusual course, but that for his part he liked
his little girl the better for her courage, and that he preferred
that I should make my husband's home happy to my making it at court.
All he asked of me was to remember that I had to guard the honour of
my husband's name and of my country, and he desired that I should
take Tryphena with me wherever I went.
CHAPTER V.
IN GARRISON.
I am almost afraid to dwell on those happiest days of my life that I
spent in garrison. My eyes, old as they are, fill with tears when I
am about to write of them, and yet they passed without my knowing how
happy they were; for much of my time was spent in solitude, much in
waiting, much in anxiety; but ah! there then always was a possibility
that never, never can return!
Nancy seems to me a paradise when I look back to it, with its broad
clean streets and open squares, and the low houses with balconies,
and yet there I often thought myself miserable, for I began to learn
what it was to be a soldier's wife.
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