“That depends,” answered the young man hesitatingly, and also glancing at Lucie. “The other alternative, naturally, is much more to be desired.”
Lucie glanced up quickly. What did he mean?
A rather embarrassed silence fell upon the group. It was broken by Captain Du Bois, who went over and stood in front of Lucie and her mother.
“Dear daughter,” he said, “you know very well that your mother and I fell in love in the old-fashioned way, and we have always said that we meant our child should have the same freedom of choice when the time came. There happens, however, to arise an occasion when we must ask you to help us in a decision. I am hoping to reëstablish my business, and Heaven seems to have sent to me one who of all men I should choose to associate with me as junior partner. Our good friend Victor Guerin prefers commercial life here rather than life on a farm at Coin-du-Pres, but there are conditions which only you can carry out. Victor will consent to be my partner only if he can also be my son-in-law. He has loved you very loyally, served you very faithfully, dear daughter.”
Lucie’s head drooped very low. Her cheeks were crimson, but she appeared unable to make any reply.
“Of course this is all in the future,” her father went on, “for your school days are not over and it will take a long time to get the business running again, but it must be you who shall decide whether Victor stay or go, and the decision must be guided not by any interest for me, but entirely by what your own heart says. If you decide against him, Victor will return to Coin-du-Pres to carry out the plans which seem best there.”
Lucie looked across her father at Victor, who was leaning forward watching her with all his heart in his eyes. “You mean—?”
“That I shall do what seems to be the desire of my family, should this project fail. I am not a farmer, but I shall try to become one. I am not in love with Annette, nor she with me, but—”
Lucie sprang to her feet and ran to him, holding out both hands. “Oh, Victor,” she cried, “please don’t go back to Coin-du-Pres. If you marry Annette I shall be perfectly miserable.”
She ran back to her mother to hide her burning face. “I don’t want the American knight to ride out of the new year. It is Victor, Victor I want,” she whispered.