"He is delightful," admitted Rose. "But your mother loved him."
"He was chosen for her, and there was no good reason why she should not accept him. Yes, they have been very happy. But in France girls do not have a voice, and when the husband is chosen, they set themselves about making every act and thought of theirs agreeable."
"But if he was—unworthy?"
"Few parents would choose an unworthy lover, I think. They have the good of their children at heart."
Eustache Boullé had not been unworthy. He would have married her, nameless. Her heart turned suddenly tender toward him. She was learning that in the greater world there was a certain pride of birth, an honor in being well-born. She was better satisfied that she had not accepted Eustache. What if the Sieur had been opposed to it and Madame de Champlain frowned upon her?
And then the Sieur returned, but he came alone. The house in the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois, with Madame Boullé, was more attractive than the roughness of a half-civilized country. Even then Hélène plead for permission to become a lay sister in a convent, which would have meant a separation, but he would not agree to this. Ten years after his death she entered the Ursuline Convent, and some years later founded one in the town of Meaux, endowing it with most of her fortune. And though the next summer Eustache renewed his suit, he met with a firm refusal, and found the influence of his brother-in-law was against him.
Rose had been brave enough to lay the matter before him.
"Little one," he said, in the most fatherly tone—"if thou dost not love a man enough to give him thy whole soul, except what belongs to God, to desire to spend thy life with him, to honor and serve him with the best thou hast, then do not marry him. It is a bitter thing for a man to go hungry for love, when a woman has promised to hold the cup of joy to his lips."
Eustache then returned to France, and after a period of study and preparation, took holy orders, as a Friar.