"Very good, since you have made up your mind. Gad! you're not much like your sister! You see, she is rich, and happy! always at some festivity, always enjoying herself!"
"I don't envy her happiness; I should not be happy in the life she leads."
"Well, let's say no more about it."
Monsieur Gerbault left his daughter; but she could read in his eyes that he was not pleased that she had refused the two eligible husbands who had offered themselves. As for Adolphine, she said to herself:
"I cannot marry either of those men, for I love someone else. The man I love will never marry me,—I know that,—for he never thinks of me! But I choose to have the right to think of him always."
XXV
GUSTAVE'S UNCLE
After his duel with Auguste Monléard, Cherami returned to his lodgings, whistling a polka. He found his hostess where he had left her, standing in her doorway.
Madame Louchard was very inquisitive; it had stirred her curiosity to the highest pitch to see her tenant go away with the young exquisite who owned a cabriolet; and when the former returned alone, she cried:
"Well! what have you done with him?"
"With whom? with what?"