The happiest will probably be she
who leads the peaceful life of a nun.'
'That makes it worse,' cried Annora, 'if you are arranging a marriage
in which you expect your child to be less happy than if she were a
nun.'
'I said not so, sister,' returned Solivet, with much patience and
good-humour. 'I simply meant what you, as a Huguenot, cannot
perceive, that a simple life dedicated to Heaven is often happier
than one exposed to the storms and vicissitudes of the world.'
'Certainly you take good care it should prove so, when you make
marriages such as that of the d'Aubepines,' said Nan.
Solivet shrugged his shoulders by way of answer, and warned my
afterwards to take good care of our sister, or she would do something
that would shock us all. To which I answered that the family honour
was safe in the hand of so high-minded a maiden as our Annora, and he
replied:
'Then there is, as I averred, no truth in the absurd report that she
was encouraging the presumptuous advances of that factious rogue and
Frondeur, young Darpent, whom our brother had the folly to introduce
into the family.'
I did not answer, and perhaps he saw my blushes, for he added:
'If I thought so for a moment, she may be assured that his muddy
bourgeois blood should at once be shed to preserve the purity of the
family with which I have the honour to be connected.'
He was terribly in earnest, he, a Colonel in His Majesty's service, a
father of a family, a staid and prudent man, and more than forty
years old! I durst say no more but that I though Eustace was the
natural protector and head of the Ribaumont family.
Pages:
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328