"I want you to procure me a tête-à-tête with Pélagie." "A tête-à-tête! do you mean it?" "With my future bride, it will be perfectly proper!" "But propriety--good morals!" "Propriety and good morals cannot be offended." "But the custom!" "Your customs are beginning to be very irksome to me; and if you don't obtain me the interview I desire, I am quite capable of decamping some fine morning and leaving you with my intended and her aunt and all the gossip of the town on your hands!" "Oh! mon Dieu! the reckless fellow! he makes me shudder!--Well, I'll try to arrange it. After all, you're to be married in a week, and--and--in fact---- But I have an idea: I will go to Madame de Pontchartrain and ask her permission to take her niece with me to make some purchases that are necessary for her wedding; she can't refuse me; then I'll bring Pélagie here, and you can talk to her at your leisure." "That's a happy idea!" "But I trust, my dear, that you will behave yourself, and----" "Don't be alarmed! Really, you have a very low opinion of me." "The fact that I am going to fetch your intended proves the contrary." My sister did, in fact, go to Madame de Pontchartrain's. My threat of leaving Melun had made poor Amélie tremble; she had not even been willing to let me go to Paris to purchase the indispensable gifts; Déneterre had undertaken to do all that. I did not insist, for I might have fallen in with somebody in Paris who would have made me forget my marriage. Amélie succeeded in her mission; she soon returned with Pélagie, who, on seeing me, blushed and courtesied as if I were a stranger. "Here is my brother, who will be delighted to talk with you," said Amélie, as she led Pélagie into the house. "I have a thousand things to do, and I am compelled to leave you for a few minutes; but you will be united in a week, so I can see no great harm in leaving you together." Amélie left us, and I was alone with my future wife at last. Pélagie seated herself at a considerable distance from me, so I began by placing my chair close to hers and taking possession of both her hands. I was glad to see that she made no effort to withdraw them. I gazed at her for several minutes; she kept her eyes fixed on the floor and said not a word. I concluded that if I did not begin the conversation we should sit in silence and without moving all day long; indeed, it was my place to begin. "You know, mademoiselle, that we are to be married?" "Yes, monsieur." "In a week, I shall be your husband." "Yes, monsieur." "Does the prospect please you?" "Yes, monsieur." "Then you love me a little?" "Yes, monsieur." That was not bad for a beginning. Still, I was anxious to obtain something besides that everlasting _yes, monsieur_.--I tried to go about it so as to make her reply less briefly. "When you first saw me, did you pick me out from the rest, prefer me to other young men?"