“Ah! you know too well how to offer the jewels of flattery. Shall I tell you my private opinion about you? Well, I think you have more mind than a lover ought to have. To be the Pink of Fashion and a wit as well,” she added, dropping her eyes, “is to have too many advantages: a man should choose between them. I fear too, myself.”
“And why?”
“We must not talk in this way. Mamma, do you not think that this conversation is dangerous inasmuch as the contract is not yet signed?”
“It soon will be,” said Paul.
“I should like to know what Achilles and Nestor are saying to each other in the next room,” said Natalie, nodding toward the door of the little salon with a childlike expression of curiosity.
“They are talking of our children and our death and a lot of other such trifles; they are counting our gold to see if we can keep five horses in the stables. They are talking also of deeds of gift; but there, I have forestalled them.”
“How so?”
“Have I not given myself wholly to you?” he said, looking straight at the girl, whose beauty was enhanced by the blush which the pleasure of this answer brought to her face.
“Mamma, how can I acknowledge so much generosity.”
“My dear child, you have a lifetime before you in which to return it. To make the daily happiness of a home, is to bring a treasure into it. I had no other fortune when I married.”