"Oh! I have lost my father, monsieur! and it was so short a time since Heaven gave him back to me!" "Courage, my poor child," said the count; "hereafter I will take his place!" XLV CONCLUSION After Roncherolle's death, Monsieur de Brevanne took Violette into his family and treated her as his daughter. He provided different masters for both Violette and Georget, who completed their education. Study, Georget's love, and the count's affection, gradually changed Violette's grief into a melancholy souvenir. Sometimes she said to Monsieur de Brevanne: "So you don't want me to sell flowers any more, monsieur?" "No, my child," the count said with a smile. "You shall have flowers, you shall raise them, and pick as many as you please; but you no longer need to sell them, for I am wealthy, and when your mourning is at an end, I propose to marry you to Georget and share my fortune with you." A few weeks after Roncherolle's death, of which the count informed Monsieur de Merval, the latter met Madame de Grangeville on the street, and she eagerly accosted him. "At last I meet you, my sincere, my generous friend, and I am able to express my gratitude for what you are doing for me. No more mystery, my dear Merval, I know all; I recognized your handwriting; indeed, what other than yourself would have acted so delicately toward me? But I assure you that as to the little flower girl, you are mistaken, you are entirely wrong; it was simply some resemblance of feature which led you to think that." Monsieur de Merval listened without interrupting, and when she had finished, he said to her in a very grave tone: "Madame, it is time that you should be disabused concerning the error under which you are laboring. I am not entitled to your thanks, the money which you receive from an unknown hand is not sent to you by me, I tell you again; but I have a shrewd suspicion from whom it does come." "Who is it, pray? For heaven's sake, give me the name of that generous friend." "The Comte de Brevanne, madame." Madame de Grangeville made a slight grimace and shut her lips together in annoyance, muttering: "My husband! what an idea! how on earth could he have learned that I was in straitened circumstances?" "It was I who told him, madame, after I had the honor to pay you a visit; I did not think that I did wrong in informing Monsieur de Brevanne that your situation was not--was not prosperous." "I did not give you that commission, monsieur.--But in that case--the flower girl----" "It was he who sent her also, madame." "Really, monsieur, I utterly failed to understand the romance that that girl told me. Someone has believed, or imagined, things which are utterly absurd." "It seems, madame, that Monsieur de Roncherolle understood better than you did, for he did not fail to acknowledge that young flower girl as his daughter." "His daughter! Monsieur de Roncherolle acknowledged her as his daughter?" "Yes, madame, before he died."