"As we are all agreed," said Monsieur de Boisguilbault, rising and making a signal through the window, "I will beg Mademoiselle Gilberte, who has, like myself, a fondness for flowers, to accept the betrothal bouquet."
The marquis's groom entered and put down the little casket he had brought. Monsieur de Boisguilbault took from it a bouquet of the rarest and most fragrant flowers; old Martin had spent more than an hour in arranging it artistically. But, by way of ribbon, the bouquet was tied with the necklace of diamonds which Gilberte had returned; and, to take the place of the shawl, which the marquis had not deemed it advisable to produce again, he had put two rows instead of one in the necklace.
"Oho! two or three thousand francs in addition to what the contract calls for!" thought Monsieur Cardonnet, pretending to look at the diamonds with indifference.
"Now," said Monsieur de Boisguilbault to Gilberte, "you can refuse me nothing, as I have done what you wished. I suggest that you and your father take your carriage—the same barrow that was so useful to me and that procured me the happiness of your acquaintance. We will go to Gargilesse. I fancy that Monsieur Cardonnet desires to present his daughter-in-law to his wife, and, for my part, I am most anxious that my heiress should win her heart."
Monsieur Cardonnet welcomed the suggestion eagerly, and they were about to start when Emile appeared. He had learned that his father had gone to Châteaubrun; he dreaded some new plot against his happiness and Gilberte's peace of mind. He had leaped upon his horse, and forgetting his loss of blood, his fever and his promises to the marquis, he arrived at the ruins, trembling, breathless, and oppressed by the gloomiest forebodings.
"Well, Emile, here is your wife already dressed for the wedding," said Monsieur Cardonnet, divining the explanation of his imprudence. And he pointed to Gilberte, covered with flowers and diamonds, on Monsieur de Boisguilbault's arm.
Emile, whose nerves were terribly tense and agitated, was like one thunderstruck amid all the miracles that burst upon him at once. He tried to speak, staggered and fell fainting in Monsieur Antoine's arms.
Happiness rarely kills; Emile soon returned to life and bliss. Janille rubbed his temples with vinegar, Gilberte held his hand in hers, and, that nothing might be lacking in his joy, his mother, too, was there when he opened his eyes. Made acquainted very recently, by Emile's delirium, with his passion for Gilberte, she had made Galuchet tell her the whole story, and, learning that her husband had gone to Châteaubrun, and that her son had ridden thither notwithstanding his condition, and foreseeing some terrible storm, she had driven at full speed to the ruins, defying for the first time her husband's wrath, and the bad roads, to which she paid no heed. She fell in love with Gilberte at the first words they exchanged, and if the young girl felt some alarm at the thought of entering a family of which Cardonnet was the head, she was sure that she should find some compensation in his wife's loving heart and gentle nature.
"As we are all together," said Monsieur de Boisguilbault, with a grace of which no one would have believed him capable, "we must pass the rest of the day together and dine somewhere. There are too many of us not to cause Mademoiselle Janille some embarrassment here, and if we should return to Gargilesse we might take Monsieur Cardonnet's butler unawares. If you will all do me the honor to come to Boisguilbault, which, by the way, is much nearer, we shall find there the materials for dining, I think. Perhaps Monsieur Cardonnet will take some interest in becoming acquainted with his children's property, we will draw up their marriage contract there and appoint a day for the wedding."
This new evidence of the marquis's complete conversion was received with great warmth. Janille asked but five minutes to make mademoiselle's toilet, for she thought that she should be ceremoniously attired for the occasion, but Gilberte greeted with a hearty kiss what she called a joke on the part of her fond mother.