They descended the main staircase amidst a murmur of admiration from a fashionably dressed crowd. As in the case of all marriages of wealthy people, a few eager beggars and down-at-heel loafers congregated here and there on the pavement. One of them climbed the gilded gate in order to see better, and his movements were like the contortions of a crab. Standing near him a squalid-looking peddler of rugs, carrying his bundle of trash on his shoulders, stared at the procession with not less interest. Captain d'Haumont was in the seventh heaven and had no eyes for earthly sights, nor did he hear the words that were spoken in an undertone by an over-dressed man to his companion, who might have been a sheriff's clerk and looked rather shabby:
"Well, what do you think about it, Joker?"
"I think he is now ripe, Parisian."
[CHAPTER XV]
THE HONEYMOON
The moon—Captain and Madame d'Haumont's honeymoon—rose with its soft refulgence over the silver waves at Villefranche, at the extremity of Cape Ferrat, between Nice and Monte Carlo. It was here, in the seclusion of the fragrant gardens of "Thalassa," the splendid villa which M. de la Boulays possessed on the azure coast of the Mediterranean, that they had hidden their great and new-found happiness.
Leaning on the beflowered balcony the happy couple listened in silence to the moaning of the sea breaking itself at the foot of the hills which watched over this enchanted bay. The dark mass of two vessels lay heavily asleep on their gleaming bed in the beautiful night.
Only the faint splash of two oars causing a light swirl of glistening foam could be heard from the roadstead, and a boat passed so near as to be almost at their feet.
"How pleasant it would be to have a row on the sea at this delightful hour," murmured Françoise.
She had scarcely given expression to the wish when Didier hailed the fisherman who was rowing the boat and asked him to wait. They made their way down the steps which led to the beach, and the man, having consented by a gesture to take them with him, they were soon gliding over the surface of the waves, which were flowing out to the headland of Cape Ferrat.