Whilst Mimi had been speaking, Victorine had left the apartment to make preparations for their dinner, or else she would probably have tried to stop her little sister; as it was, the child, who feared no one else, and who often felt much annoyed by Lisette’s assumption of her rights, was glad to mortify her. Lisette and Mimi had both been somewhat spoilt as the two youngest, and the extraordinary beauty of Lisette made her still a favourite and often a successful competitor over Mimi with their parents. And now, this rivalship was manifested by the eager desire of the child to repeat what she knew would vex her sister. “Uncle Dorsain,” were her words, “ask my mother if she might not have had my three sisters chosen together, instead of Felicie Durand.”
“That she might!” exclaimed Durocher, proudly, but with an air of vexation; “and had you, Mimi, been Victorine, that triumph would have been obtained by our family. Most anxious is Monsieur le Prieur, brother Dorsain, for the conversion of Victorine: it is astonishing
what pains the good father has taken with the girl; and it is only a few weeks ago he came here to assure her he would secure the crown to her if she would attend mass regularly. The girl obstinately refused the offer, and it was in anger that he left us.”
“And wherefore did she refuse?” inquired Dorsain.
“It was all obstinate folly,” replied Valmont; “she declared herself happy without it; and even went so far as to quote Scripture against the fête of the Rose.”
“What could she say?” demanded the quiet Dorsain, all astonishment.
“She said what is very true!” exclaimed Mimi; “she told us it would make us unhappy and dissatisfied with each other, and the words she used from Scripture, uncle Dorsain, were these: ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.’”
“And she called the fête of the Rosiere a root of bitterness!” exclaimed Lisette. “Did you ever hear such nonsense, uncle?”
“I do not think it nonsense,” said Mimi; “I think Victorine was very right.”
“You are too young to judge Mimi;” replied Lisette, “when you are as old as Monsieur le Prieur, you will probably agree with a wise man in preference to a young girl of seventeen.”