After installing Bathilde in the noble mansion on Place Royale, after handing her the documents which assured to her, and to her unborn child as well, an independent fortune, the old marquis had imprinted a kiss on the brow of his new daughter, and had left Paris for his estate in the country, taking with him old Hector and several of his oldest servants; the others had remained in the young countess's service. As for Landry, his daughter's new position in the world satisfied his honor without dazzling his mind. But his good sense told him that the father of the Comtesse de Marvejols ought not to carry on a bathing establishment, and he lost no time in selling it. On the day following her marriage, Bathilde went to her mother to ask her pardon and to entreat a renewal of her affection. But Dame Ragonde could not forgive even her own child. After listening coldly to her daughter's entreaties, she replied in a harsh, dry tone: "I congratulate you on having become a countess; but I trust that it will not encourage other girls to imitate you!" With that, she turned her back on Bathilde, who was fain to be content with her father's warm embrace. Soon after, the old soldier and his wife started for Normandie. Although Bathilde had had to renounce the hope of recovering her mother's favor,--in truth, her mother had never manifested the least real affection for her,--by way of compensation there were some persons whom her new fortune made very happy, and who did not attempt to conceal the joy and satisfaction which that unhoped-for event caused them. Is it necessary to name Ambroisine and her father? But Ambroisine especially was overjoyed, because, as she contemplated Bathilde in her fine clothes, and in that superb mansion which had become hers, she could justly say to herself: "This is my work; she owes it to me that she is in this place, that she has a name and a handsome fortune!" The sweet-natured Bathilde did not show herself ungrateful. Her first care when she found that she was the mistress of large means was to beg Ambroisine and her father to share her wealth with her. At first, she asked them to live in her house; then she insisted upon enriching Master Hugonnet, and begged him to accept as a token of her friendship a handsome sum which would assure his well-being for life, so that he need work no more. But Ambroisine and her father refused everything.