"It was the next day, the morning after the wedding, I had time to think. I was sitting here, just as you see me now, in my pretty new _negligée_. I had been looking at all the pretty presents I have shown you, and my trousseau, and my furniture,--it is not bad, as you see,--my dress, my veil, my ring, and--I do not know--I do not know--but, all of a sudden, from everywhere came the thought of my _brun_, my handsome _brun_ with the mustache, and the _bonne aventure, ricke, avenant_, the Jules, Raoul, Guy, and the flower leaves, and '_il m'aime, un pen, beaucoup, pas du tout,' passionnément_, and the way I expected to meet him walking to and from school, walking as if I were dancing the steps, and oh, my plans, my plans, my plans,--silk dresses, theater, voyages to Europe,--and poor papa, so fine, so tall, so aristocratic. I cannot tell you how it all came; it seized my heart, and, _mon Dieu!_ I cried out, and I wept, I wept, I wept. How I wept! It pains me here now to remember it. Hours, hours it lasted, until I had no tears in my body, and I had to weep without them, with sobs and moans. But this, I have always observed, is the time for reflection--after the tears are all out. And I am sure God himself gave me my thoughts. 'Poor little Mimi!' I thought, '_fi done_! You are going to make a fool of yourself now when it is all over, because why? It is God who manages the world, and not you. You pray to God to help you in your despair, and he has helped you. He has sent you a good, kind husband who adores you; who asks only to be a brother to your sisters and brothers, and son to Clementine; who has given you more than you ever possessed in your life--but because he did not come out of the _bonne aventure_--and who gets a husband out of the _bonne aventure?_--and would your _brun_ have come to you in your misfortune?' I am sure God inspired those thoughts in me. [Illustration: "I wept, I wept, I wept."] "I tell you, I rose from that bed--naturally I had thrown myself upon it. Quick I washed my face, I brushed my hair, and, you see these bows of ribbons,--look, here are the marks of the tears,--I turned them. _Hé,_ Loulou, it occurs to me, that if you examined the blue bows on a bride's _negligée_, you might always find tears on the other side; for do they not all have to marry whom God sends? and am I the only one who had dreams? It is the end of dreams, marriage; and that is the good thing about it. God lets us dream to keep us quiet, but he knows when to wake us up, I tell you. The blue bows knew! And now, you see, I prefer my husband to my _brun_; in fact, Loulou, I adore him, and I am furiously jealous about him. And he is so good to Clementine and the poor little children; and see his photograph--a blond, and not good-looking, and small! "But poor papa! If he had been alive, I am sure he never would have agreed with God about my marriage." THE MIRACLE CHAPEL