The reunion was an inexpressibly happy one. The young people had a thousand things to tell each other, and as they chatted away like magpies, Madame Pradère watching them with tear-dimmed eyes, but swelling heart, murmured softly:
"The good God bless them! They are the sunshine of my life."
At breakfast the following morning Cæsar surprised her by asking permission to take Nadine away with him for a few days.
"Where do you wish to take her, Cæsar?" Madame Pradère inquired.
"I want to fulfill a vow that I made the day I entered the Conservatory," answered Cæsar, and on his explaining what the vow was, Madame at once said:
"I heartily approve, Cæsar. It will be a lovely thing to do, and not only shall Nadine and Abel accompany you, but I shall also go with you."
Two days later Madame and the three young people took the midday train at the railway station, it being the twenty-third of December.
Where were they going—and how was it that Madame Pradère, who had not gone out since her husband's death, went with them?
These were the questions that set Morainville agog, but the secret was well kept, and no one could answer them, save with a mere guess.