"Why?"
"Why! See here! I have been married now for twenty years, and haven't got used to it yet. Every evening, when I reach home, I say to myself, 'Hold hard! this old woman is still in my house! So then she'll never go away?'" Everyone began to laugh, so serious and convinced was his tone.
But the bells of the hotel were ringing for dinner. The fête was over. Louise and Charlotte were accompanied back to their father's house; and when their new friends had left them, they commenced talking about them. Everyone thought them charming, Andermatt alone preferred the elder girl.
The Marquis said: "How pliant the feminine nature is! The mere vicinity of the paternal gold, of which they do not even know the use, has made ladies of these country girls."
Christiane, having asked Paul Bretigny: "And you, which of them do you prefer?" he murmured:
"Oh! I? I have not even looked at them. It is not they whom I prefer."
He had spoken in a very low voice; and she made no reply.
[1] A hectare is about two acres and a half.