"Such evenings as this are too horrible; I shall not have the courage to endure them often. Oh! let them be happy together! but I pray that he may not come here any more, that I may not be forced to be a witness of his love for another!" XLVI IN WHICH CHERAMI ACTS LIKE SAINT ANTHONY Gustave did not fail to take advantage of the permission Fanny had accorded him. Two days after the party at which they had met, he called upon the young widow, who greeted him thus: "I began to think that you were off on your travels again, and that we shouldn't see you for another six months." "Oh! I have no desire to travel now; I am too happy in Paris; especially if you allow me to come to see you." "What good does it do for me to allow it, when you don't come? I expected you the day before yesterday, I expected you yesterday." "I was afraid of being presumptuous if I took advantage too soon of the permission you gave me." "I thought that you wouldn't stand on ceremony, and that we should be on the same terms together as before my marriage to Monsieur Monleard." These words were accompanied by such a soft glance that Gustave no longer doubted that he was loved. He took Fanny's hand and covered it with kisses; she did not resist, and her hand responded tenderly to the pressure of his. Any other than Gustave would probably have carried further his desires and his acts, but he had long been accustomed to look upon Fanny as the woman whom he wished to make his wife; and in his love there was a sort of respect which her widow's dress could not fail to intensify. So Gustave confined himself to repeating that he had never ceased to be enamored of her whom he had hoped to call his wife, and that he would be very, very happy if his hopes could be gratified at last. For her part, Fanny gave him to understand that while she might once have been ambitious and fickle, those failings should be charged to her age and consequent giddiness, and that, in reality, her heart had never been in agreement with her vanity. Then the young widow, by a natural transition, adroitly led Gustave on to speak of his position and prospects. He was assured of ten thousand francs a year if he remained in his uncle's banking-house; he could hope for more in the future; to be sure, Monsieur Grandcourt would not be pleased to have his nephew marry, but he would place no obstacle in the way of the execution of his project. They would not live in the banker's house, but would take pleasant apartments not far from his offices; they would keep no carriage; he would take his wife to the theatre very often, and to the country; he would not give her diamonds, but she should have handsome dresses, and, as she was charming in herself, she would always be the loveliest of women, even if she were not covered with jewels.