"All right, all right, I will go," said Marcel. "I am going; but what about you?"
"As if it made any difference about me!" cried Julien. "What! haven't you gone?"
And he took Marcel by the shoulders, embraced him and pushed him out of the gate.
As soon as he had lost sight of him, he returned to his mother.
"Well," he said, with a smiling face, "everything is going better than I hoped: Madame d'Estrelle is not a prisoner! She will soon return."
He watched his mother closely as he spoke. She uttered a joyful exclamation, but a cloud passed over her brow at the same time. Julien sat down beside her and took both her hands.
"Tell me the truth," he said; "the marriage project worries you a little, doesn't it?"
"How can you think that I do not long most earnestly for anything that will make you happy? But I thought, that you no longer hoped."
"I was entirely resigned, and you said as I did: 'Let us not be discouraged, let us wait. Let us not think too much; perhaps she will forget, and in that case perhaps you would do well to forget also.'"
"And you answered: 'I will forget if necessary.' And now I see that you rely upon her more than ever."