"I will tell you that when you return," Julie replied.
"Really, madame," said Julien, as soon as Marcel had gone, "by what unlucky chance do you honor my mother with a visit on the very day when your deadly enemy is watching you? And why do you remain here now, as if to confirm her in her extraordinary suspicions?"
Despite Julien's affectionate and respectful tone, his words contained a sort of rebuke which surprised Madame Thierry.
"Julien," said Madame d'Estrelle earnestly, "the moment to be sincere has arrived. It has arrived sooner than I expected, but it cannot be avoided, and I do not propose to retreat before my destiny. My excellent friend," she cried, throwing her arms about Madame Thierry's neck, "listen to the whole truth. I love Julien. I am bound to him by the most sacred pledges. Embrace and bless your daughter."
"O mon Dieu!" cried Madame Thierry in utter bewilderment, pressing Julie to her heart, "are you married?"
"Surely not, never without your consent," said Julien, embracing his mother in his turn; "but we solemnly promised each other to ask your consent when the time came that there would be nothing in this disclosure likely to alarm your affection. Julie has spoken sooner than I could have wished, but she has spoken, and what can I add? I deceived you, dear mother, I love her madly, and I am the happiest of men because she loves me too!"
Madame Thierry was so profoundly moved by these revelations that it was a long time before she was able to speak. She overwhelmed Julie and Julien with the most loving caresses, and, trembling from head to foot, with cold hands and streaming eyes, she felt a curious mixture of terror and joy. The first feeling was the more powerful, perhaps, for her first words were to ask Julien why, amid his happiness, he seemed to reproach Julie for acting a little too quickly.
"Ah! there you are!" said Julie. "Last evening—for we talk together every evening, dear mother—we agreed to await the final decision as to my fate before revealing our secret to our friends and to you. I saw that I was marching to my destruction. Julien was content. But he would have liked, for my sake, that all the wrong should be on the marchioness's side; and it is quite certain that my resolution, when known and published, will give her numerous partisans in her circle of pious hypocrites and evil-tongued prudes; but for my part I cannot endure the thought of being represented to be a lewd woman, and that would happen if I were afraid to tell the whole truth."
"Yes, of course," replied Julien; "now, we must tell it; but you put forward the hour, my dear Julie! For that rash act I adore you more than ever; but it was my duty not to assent to it. Love and destiny carried the day over my prudence; they made my devotion entirely useless. A truce to reflections! Bless your children, dear mother; Julie has said it, Julie wishes it, and I know that you wish it as much as she does."
While the occupants of the pavilion were thus pouring out their hearts, the marchioness, installed in the salon of the hôtel, proceeded to make a rigidly exact appraisal of both properties. Marcel fought, the notary made sincere but vain efforts to adjust the respective claims. At last they reached a conclusion intensely disappointing to Marcel—that Julie could not hope to save her furniture from the enemy's clutches. It was a great concession to allow her to retain her diamonds and her laces. She had no choice but to submit to those harsh terms, because otherwise she might get nothing; nobody had appeared to outbid the marchioness. Marcel had written to Uncle Antoine, hoping that he would feel a longing for the garden and would not haggle overmuch, for all his wrath; but Uncle Antoine had held aloof.