“I see. She becomes, then, the important factor.”
“What do you mean?”
“You would lose her.”
“Why?”
“The law courts would not deprive her father of her custody.”
“But if he doesn’t care for her?”
“Are you sure he doesn’t?”
“He has left her.”
“For a time, perhaps, but she is his, and if, which would be most unnatural, he did not care for her, he might still care for what she represented.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that he cared for nothing but his mistress, but I left the vulgar words unspoken. After all, I was not sure that Philibert did not care for Geneviève. His moods of a doting father might be genuine. He might indeed fight for her. My will hardened as I wearily dismissed the tiresome discouraging man of law. It was all more complicated than I had thought.