He was impatient to have all the tumult and folly which precede a great marriage over and done with. Every detail annoyed him; every formula irritated him.
‘All I entreat is, that there may be no delay,’ he said so often to her cousin, that Madame de Vannes ended in believing that he must be much more enamoured than his manner had betokened, and said with amusement to her husband:
‘It has often been disputed whether a man can be in love with two persons at one time: Othmar is so, unquestionably. It is like the bud and the fruit on the same bough of camellia.’
‘It is to be hoped that when the bud is a flower the fruit will fall,’ said de Vannes, with a grim smile.
‘You are not sincere when you say that,’ said the Duchesse, ‘and you know that both always fall—after a time.’
‘A law of nature,’ said her husband. ‘And it is a law of nature also that others come in their place.’
‘My dear friend,’ said Aurore de Vannes, with good-natured contempt, ‘when Yseulte shall have followed the laws of nature in that way, believe me, it is not you who will profit by them. You were good-looking ten years ago—or more—but absinthe and bacarat does not improve the looks after five-and-twenty, and you have crow’s-feet already, and will soon have to dye your hair if you wish still to look young. Yseulte will never think of you except as a vieux cousin who was kind enough to give her a locket—if she will even do that when she has got all the diamonds that she will get as Countess Othmar.’
Meantime, Othmar himself was constantly saying to the Duchesse:
‘I put myself completely in your hands; only, all I beseech of you, Madame, is not to delay my marriage longer than you are absolutely obliged.’
‘He does not say his happiness,’ thought Madame de Vannes, as she said aloud, ‘Well, what will seem terrible to you? I think I ought to exact a delay of at least six months. She is so very young.’