“Was he ever attached to the army?”
“Oh, yes, monsieur: he served in the cavalry at Saumur. If he had lived, I should have been better off than I am.”
“My girl,” said Eusebe, after a pause, “all that is here belongs to you. Madame has made you her sole legatee.”
“Ah, monsieur!” exclaimed Jenny, weeping with joy and sorrow, “I am very happy and very unhappy at the same time. I had no need of this to make me love madame like a sister.”
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Eusebe, oppressed with grief, returned home a prey to a violent fever. Notwithstanding his efforts to conceal his suffering, he was forced to take to his bed, where he remained for a month, almost without consciousness. When he recovered his senses, he found Paul Buck and Gredinette at his bedside. Eusebe asked for his wife: they told him that she had gone to attend a dying sister. Some days afterwards, Eusebe, being convalescent, walked in the garden, leaning on the arm of Gredinette.
“Eusebe,” said the young woman, stopping suddenly, “since you must learn the truth sooner or later, I prefer relieving my mind by telling you at once. Prepare yourself to hear of a great misfortune.”
“Speak!” said Eusebe: “I could not be more unhappy than I am.”
After much hesitation and circumlocution, Gredinette informed Eusebe that his wife had eloped with Isidore Boncain, and that the guilty couple had carried away with them the money of the firm.