“The whole affair, the whole connection, is serious,” said Mme. de Beaudrillart gravely. “Nathalie is not without good points, but such a father! What can one expect!”
“He talks as if Poissy belonged to him. By-and-by, you will see he will suggest something preposterous.”
Mme. de Beaudrillart smiled.
“He may suggest,” she said, calmly.
And, unfortunately, one of M. Bourget’s chief objects in coming to Poissy was to make a suggestion.
His interview with Fauvel was less satisfactory than he would have desired. Both were men of vigorous ideas, and, although M. Bourget was the stronger, and usually had his way, there were times when Fauvel took refuge in argument, in which he developed an annoying aptitude. He was in favour of one way of securing the wall, and M. Bourget of another; each hammered at the other’s reasons for a good half-hour, and what chiefly irritated M. Bourget was Fauvel’s habit of referring to work which he had executed for a certain retired chemist at Tours. That any comparison should be made between this petty undertaking and that of restoring the stability of Poissy exasperated him almost beyond bounds, and would have driven him to condemn a better plan. He carried his point at last by dint of sheer browbeating; but it had heated his blood, and he marched away mopping his forehead, and inveighing against Fauvel’s pigheadedness, until Nathalie had some difficulty in soothing him.
“I think I understand what you mean, father, and I will ask Léon to see that it is carried out.” He faced round upon her angrily.
“You will do nothing of the sort. What! Aren’t these women turning up their noses at you because you are a builder’s daughter? You will forget that, if you please, and become a fine lady as quickly as possible: Now that I have made you a De Beaudrillart, I expect you to hold up your head with the best of them.”
She was thunderstruck, the more so because she had not imagined that he had taken in her position in the house, or the petty thrusts with which Claire had attempted to wound both him and her. But she answered with spirit:
“You are mistaken. They will not respect me the more for pretending to be what I am not.”