Country life -- Fiction; France -- Fiction; Love stories
When we all got about again it was found that no one was seriously
damaged, except Père Carnat, whose wrist, as it proved, I had
dislocated, and a parley and settlement ensued. It was agreed that
Joseph should have certain parishes; and he had them assigned to him,
though with no intention of using his privilege.
I was rather more ill than I thought for; not so much on account of
my wound, which was not severe, nor yet of the blows that had been
rained on my body, but because of the bleeding the monk had done to
me with the best intentions. Huriel and Brulette had the charming
amiability to put off their marriage till ours could take place; and
a month later, the two weddings were celebrated,--in fact, there were
three, for Benoît wished to acknowledge his publicly, and to
celebrate the occasion with us. The worthy man, delighted to have
had his heir so well taken care of by Brulette, tried to get her to
accept a gift of some consequence, but she steadily refused, and
throwing herself into Mariton's arms she said: "Remember that this
dear woman was a mother to me for more than a dozen years; do you
think I can take money when I am not yet out of her debt?"
"That maybe," said Mariton, "but your bringing up was nothing but
honor and profit to me, whereas that of my Charlot brought you
trouble and insult."
"My dear friend," replied Brulette, "that very fact is all that evens
our account. I would gladly have made your José happy in return for
all your goodness to me; but that did not depend on my poor heart,
and so to compensate you for the grief I caused him, I was bound to
suffer all I did for your other child."
"There's a girl for you!" cried Benoît, wiping his big round eyes,
which were not used to shed tears. "Yes, yes, indeed, there's a
girl!--" and he couldn't say any more.
To get even with Brulette, he was determined to pay all the costs of
her wedding, and mine into the bargain. As he spared nothing and
invited at least two hundred guests, it cost him a pretty sum, which
he paid without a murmur.
The monk promised faithfully to be present, all the more because the
prior had kept him on bread and water for a month and the embargo on
his gullet was raised the very day of the wedding. He did not abuse
his liberty, however, and behaved in such a pleasant way that we all
became as fast friends with him as Huriel and Benoît had previously
been.
Joseph kept up his courage till the day of the wedding. In the
morning he was pale, and apparently deep in thought; but as we left
the church he took the bagpipe from my father-in-law's hand, and
played a wedding march which he had composed that very night in our
honor. It was such a beautiful piece of music, and was so applauded,
that his gloom disappeared, and he played triumphantly his best dance
airs all the evening, and quite forgot himself and his troubles the
whole time the festivities lasted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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