CHAPTER IX. After he had escorted Marie to her carriage Doctor Dufour reëntered the house and found his friend still standing thoughtfully by the window. On hearing the door open and close, David awoke from his reverie and turned toward the doctor, who, thinking of the painful scene which they had just witnessed, exclaimed, referring of course to Madame Bastien: "Poor woman! poor woman!" "The young woman does indeed seem greatly to be pitied," remarked David. "Far more than you think, for she lives only for her son; so you can judge how she must suffer." "Her son? Why, I thought he was her brother. She doesn't look a day over twenty. She must have married very young." "At the age of fifteen." "And how beautiful she is!" remarked Henri, after a moment's silence. "Her loveliness, too, is of an unusual type,--the at once virginal and maternal beauty that gives Raphael's virgin mothers such a divine character." "Virgin mothers! The words are peculiarly appropriate in this connection. I will tell you Madame Bastien's story. I feel sure that it will interest you." "You are right, my friend. It will give me food for thought during my travels." "M. Fierval," began the doctor, "was the only son of a well-to-do banker of Angers; but several unfortunate speculations involved him deeply, financially. Among his business friends was a real estate agent named Jacques Bastien, who was a native of this town and the son of a notary. When M. Fierval became embarrassed, Bastien, who had considerable ready money, gave him valuable pecuniary assistance. Marie was fifteen at the time, beautiful, and, like nearly all the daughters of thrifty provincials, brought up like a sort of upper servant in the house." "What you say amazes me. Madame Bastien's manners are so refined. She has such an air of distinction--" "In short, you see nothing to indicate any lack of early education in her." "Quite the contrary." "You are right; but you would not be so much surprised if you had witnessed the numerous metamorphoses in Madame Bastien that I have. Though she was so young she made a sufficiently deep impression upon our real estate man for him to come to me one day, and say: "'I want to do a very foolish thing, that is to marry a young girl, but what makes the thing a little less idiotic, perhaps, is that the girl I have in view, though extremely pretty, has very little education, though she is a capital housewife. She goes to market with her father's cook, makes delicious pickles and preserves, and hasn't her equal in mending and darning.' Six weeks afterward, Marie, in spite of her aversion, and in spite of her tears and entreaties, yielded to her father's inexorable will, and became Madame Bastien." "Was Bastien himself aware of the repugnance he inspired?"