“Where are you going this morning?” he asked.
“I return to the school to help my pupils prepare their compositions for the prize.”
“Very well; while you are at the school this morning, I will go to see your mother. The process of asking in marriage that we make use of is perhaps original, and conforms to the laws of nature, if nature admits marriage, which I ignore; but it certainly is not the way of those of the world. And now I must address this request to your mother.”
“What joy you will give her!”
“I hope so.”
“I should like to be there to enjoy her happiness. Mamma has a mania for marriage; she spends her time marrying the people she knows or those she does not know. And she has felt convinced that I should die in the yellow skin of an old maid. At last, this evening she will have the happiness of announcing to me your visit and your request. But do not make this visit until the afternoon, because then our cousin will be gone.”
Saniel spent his morning in looking for apartments, and found one in a quarter of the Invalides, which he engaged.
It was nearly one o’clock when he reached Madame Cormier’s. As usual, when he called, she looked at him with anxious curiosity, thinking of Florentin.
“It is not of him that I wish to speak to you to-day,” he said, without pronouncing any name, which was unnecessary. “It is of Mademoiselle Phillis—”
“Do you find her ill?” Madame Cormier said, who thought only of misfortune.