"Now, that we are alone, tell me, dear Adolphine, do you think that Fanny will receive me kindly? Do you think that my constancy will touch her? that her heart will be moved by it? Ambition and the wish to cut a figure in the world caused her to prefer Monsieur Monleard to me. I can readily forgive her, young as she was, for listening to vanity rather than love--for I fancy that she never had much love for her husband." "Oh, no! I don't think that she had, either." "In that case, his death cannot have caused her a very deep grief?" "She regretted his fortune, that's all." "What are her means now?" "Twenty-five hundred francs a year. My father asked her to come to live with us, but she preferred to have a home of her own." "Twenty-five hundred francs! That's very little for one who has kept her carriage." "It's quite enough for one whose happiness doesn't depend on money." "You think so, Adolphine, because you haven't your sister's tastes; but all women aren't like you. Fanny loves society; she's a bit of a coquette, perhaps--that's a very pardonable fault. Thank heaven! I am so placed now that I can gratify the tastes of the woman whom I marry. I earn ten thousand francs a year; she will not be able to have horses in her stable and carriages in her carriage-house, but she will not be obliged to walk when she doesn't want to.--You don't answer me, Adolphine--do you think Fanny will consent to be my wife?" "Oh! now that you earn ten thousand francs a year, she will smile on your suit, no doubt." Gustave sighed, as he rejoined in a lower tone: "Then, if I couldn't offer her that, she would refuse me again? That's what you mean to imply, isn't it?" "No, no! Mon Dieu! Monsieur Gustave, I didn't mean to hurt you; I did wrong to say that. Fanny must love you--why shouldn't she love you? It would be awfully ungrateful of her not to--when you have given her abundant proof of so much love and constancy--and have forgiven her for the sorrow she caused you. Certainly she loves you; you will be happy with her; but--you see--I can't bear to talk about it all the time--because it worries me--it makes me uneasy--for you. Mon Dieu! I am all confused." Gustave scrutinized the girl more closely, then exclaimed: "Why, I hadn't noticed before! How you have changed; how thin you are! Have you been ill, my little sister?" "Ah! you notice it now, do you? Why, no, I am not ill; nothing's the matter with me; I don't know why I should change." "Are you in pain?" Adolphine raised her lovely eyes, as if appealing to heaven, as she replied: "No, I have no pain." "I can't have you sick! I insist upon your recovering your fine, healthy color of the old days; and now that I have returned, I will look after your health." "Thanks! thanks! you will come to see us often, then?" "I hope to do so; and your sister--does she come here often?" "Thursdays, because we receive then; occasionally on other days."