“Of course not! but then we will rest, or work in the garden. And our children, to whom you do not give a thought; shall we not have to bring them up, to look after their education, to guide their first steps?”
“Ah! you are thinking already of your children?”
“Yes, mamma; they come into our plans.”
“What a mad creature you are, my dear Adeline!”
“No, mamma; on the contrary, you will see that I shall be very sensible, and my husband too.”
Madame Germeuil did not seem altogether convinced of the wisdom of her daughter’s plans; but she proposed to keep constant watch upon the conduct of her two children, and she knew that Adeline, always given to building castles in Spain, would be the first to abandon her errors, if she should ever commit any. As to Edouard, he would do whatever they wished, so that it was only a question of giving him good advice, and of not following the example of his wife, who always agreed with him.
After breakfast they discussed the question where they would live. They had sent out for a copy of the Petites-Affiches; Adeline passed the paper to her husband, and Madame Germeuil was trying to remember in which direction the air was likely to be most healthy, when Murville uttered a cry of surprise and jumped up from his chair.
“What is it, my dear?” asked Adeline, amazed by her husband’s excitement.
“It is the very place,” said Edouard, still reading the paper; “at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, the house looking on the fields, two floors, a large garden, a summer-house, a courtyard, an iron fence——”
“Well, my dear, is that what nearly made you upset the breakfast table?”