"Do so, my dear; you can tell me to-night if you have found what we want."
About five o'clock, the widow went to her father's. Monsieur Gerbault always welcomed his daughter kindly, and Adolphine did her utmost to smile on her sister.
"So you're really going to marry Gustave this time, are you?" said Monsieur Gerbault.
"Why shouldn't I, father? Do you think I shall be doing wrong?"
"No—but I regret that you didn't marry him a year ago."
"Why, father, it seems to me that I acted very wisely! Gustave had only a very modest salary then. Monsieur Monléard offered me a fortune, and I could not hesitate; the sequel didn't come up to my hopes; but certainly no one could have foreseen that."
"But you are very lucky to fall in with a man who still loves you after you have once cast him off."
"Mon Dieu! father, if Gustave had not loved me, some other man would have turned up—that's all there is to that."
"Possibly; at all events, I see that you have an answer for everything."
Adolphine listened to her sister with an air of amazement, but she did not venture to make a single reflection; she kept to herself the thoughts which Fanny's remarks inspired; and she avoided, so far as she possibly could, any conversation with her on the subject of her approaching marriage to Gustave.