"You are the man I have married in the eyes of the Church."
"The Church! The Church! There are means of arranging matters with the Church.... Your marriage can be annulled."
"On what pretext that we can admit?"
He remained silent, thinking over all those points which he had not considered, all those points which were trivial and absurd for him, but which were serious for her, and he repeated several times:
"This is terrible ... this is terrible.... I should have anticipated...."
And, suddenly, seized with an idea, he clapped his hands and cried:
"There, I have it! I'm hand in glove with one of the chief figures at the Vatican. The Pope never refuses me anything. I shall obtain an audience and I have no doubt that the Holy Father, moved by my entreaties...."
His plan was so humorous and his delight so artless that Angélique could not help smiling; and she said:
"I am your wife in the eyes of God."
She gave him a look that showed neither scorn nor animosity, nor even anger; and he realized that she omitted to see in him the outlaw and the evil-doer and remembered only the man who was her husband and to whom the priest had bound her until the hour of death.