“Ah! my dear child,” said the dowager, “it interests me more than I can say. I will explain by and by. Begin by telling us.”
“But it will be very difficult for me to tell. Can any one recount a dream?”
“Perhaps if your memory were assisted,” said Madame d’Ionis with great coolness, determined to encourage her mother-in-law’s hobby; “did they say nothing to you about the future prosperity of this house?”
“It seems to me they did, in fact.”
“Ah! you see, Zéphyrine,” cried the dowager; “you who believe in nothing and I wager that they spoke of the law suit: come, Monsieur Nivières, tell us all about it.”
A glance from Madame d’Ionis warned me not to answer. I declared that not a word of the law suit had I heard in my dreams. The dowager seemed greatly disappointed, but consoled herself by saying: “It will come! It will come!”
This, “it will come,” was very disagreeable to me, although it was said with the utmost benevolence. I did not in the least care to pass another bad night, but I readily resigned myself to my fate when Madame d’Ionis said to me in an undertone, while the dowager was quarreling with Zéphyrine about her lack of faith.
“It is very amiable of you to lend yourself to this fancy of the day in our house. I trust indeed that you will have only pleasant dreams while with us; and you are not absolutely compelled to see these three young ladies every night. It is sufficient that you should have spoken of them to-day to my excellent mother-in-law without laughing. It gives her great pleasure and does not compromise your courage. All of our friends have decided to see them in order to have some peace.”
I was sufficiently compensated and magnetized by the air of confiding intimacy that this charming woman assumed towards me to recover my ordinary gayety, and I endeavored, during my meal to recall, little by little, the wonderful things that had been revealed to me. Above all I predicted through the green ladies, a long life to the dowager.
“And my asthma, monsieur?” said she, “did they tell you that I would be cured of my asthma?”