"Ah, but, Yvonne, if he's had those sinz' that long they cann' be so very fatal, no!"
Partly for the little boy's sake three days were let pass before Aline made her announcement. There was but one place for it--the Castanados' parlor. All the coterie were there--the De l'Isles, even Ovide--butler pro tem.
"You will have refreshments," he said, with happiest equanimity; "I will serve them"; and the whole race problem vanished. Mélanie too was present, with an announcement of her own which won ecstatic kisses, many of them tear-moistened but all of them glad. As for Mme. Alexandre and Beloiseau, they announced nothing, but every one knew, and said so in the smiling fervency of their hand-grasps.
All of which made the evening too hopelessly old-fashioned to be dwelt on, though one point cannot be overlooked. It was the last proclamation of the joyous hour, and was Chester's. He had bought--on wonderfully easy terms--vieux carré terms--the large house and grounds opposite the Chapdelaine cottage, and there the aunts were to dwell with the young pair.
"Permanently?"
"Ah, only whiles we live!"
The coterie adjourned.
Already the sisters had begun to move in. Mrs. Chester helped them "marvellouzly." Also Aline. Also Cupid--that was now his only name. The cat really couldn't; she was too preoccupied. The sisters touched Mrs. Chester's arm and drew a curtain.
"Look! . . . Eight! Ah, thou unfaithful, if we had ever think you are going to so forget yo'seff like that, we woul'n' never name you Marie Madeleine! And still ad the same time you know, Mrs. Chezter, we are sure she's trying to tell us, right now, that this going to be the laz' time!"
"And me," Yvonne added, "I feel sure any'ow that, as the poet say--I'm prittie sure 'tis the poet say that--she's mo' sin' ag-ainz' than sinning."