If our King succeeded in
regaining his crown we could go home, and we both believed that
Clement would gladly join us there and become one of us. For the
present, Eustace said, I must be patient. Nobody could hinder him
from seeing Darpent, and he could make him understand how it all was,
and how he must accept the ungrateful rebuffs that he had received
from my mother.
No one can tell what that dear brother was to me then. He replied in
my name and his own to M. de Poligny, who was altogether at a loss to
understand that any reasonable brother should attend to the views of
a young girl, when such a satisfactory parti as his son was offered,
even though the boy was at least six years younger than I was; and as
my mother and Solivet did not fail to set before me, there was no
danger of his turning out like that wretch d'Aubepine, as he was a
gentle, well-conducted, dull boy, whom I could govern with a silken
thread if I only took the trouble to let him adore me. I thanked
them, and said that was not exactly my idea of wedded life; and they
groaned at my folly.
However, it turned out that M. de Poligny really wished his little
Chevalier to finish his education before being married, and had only
hastened his proposals because he wished to prevent the suit from
coming up to be pleaded, and so it was agreed that the matter should
stand over till this precious suitor of mine should have mastered his
accidence and grown a little hair on his lip.
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