The plan was carried out in every particular; and the next day, about eight o’clock, the people of Sairmeuse were greatly astonished to see Marie-Anne alight from the diligence.
“Monsieur Lacheneur’s daughter has returned!”
The words flew from lip to lip with marvellous rapidity, and soon all the inhabitants of the village were gathered at the doors and windows.
They saw the poor girl pay the driver, and enter the inn, followed by a boy bearing a small trunk.
In the city, curiosity has some shame; it hides itself while it spies into the affairs of its neighbors; but in the country it has no such scruples.
When Marie-Anne emerged from the inn, she found a crowd awaiting her with open mouths and staring eyes.
And more than twenty people making all sorts of comments, followed her to the door of the notary.
He was a man of importance, this notary, and he welcomed Marie-Anne with all the deference due an heiress of an unencumbered property, worth from forty to fifty thousand francs.
But jealous of his renown for perspicuity, he gave her clearly to understand that he, being a man of experience, had divined that love alone had dictated Chanlouineau’s last will and testament.
Marie-Anne’s composure and resignation made him really angry.