"If you no longer feel friendly to me, if this costume has made you lose confidence in me—I will resume that of Ursule."
The sweet girl timidly raised her head, and bending on Urbain a look of the tenderest love, she said, blushing deeper than before,—
"Oh, it isn't that. Excuse me, I don't know what is the matter with me."
She turned her head to hide her face in Marguerite's bosom, and said in a low tone to the latter,—
"Dear nurse, is it love that makes me feel so shy?"
"I remember scarcely anything about love now," answered the old woman, shaking her head; "however, yes, I believe in my young days it did evince itself somewhat in that fashion."
Blanche turned to Urbain and said to him, with a charming smile,—
"Don't be angry with me; if I am awkward and embarrassed it is because I love you."
Delighted at the candor of the young girl, Urbain took her hand and pressed it against his heart, then, seating himself near her, he renewed the vows with which love for her inspired him. Confidence was soon reëstablished between them; when two hearts beat in accord, constraint is soon banished. Blanche resumed her gayety, her ingenuousness, and allowed her lover to read all her feelings, and the latter perceived that he had a treasure of innocence and kindness.
Marguerite joined in the conversation of the young people; Urbain, by his amiability and the deference he showed for the old servant's advice, entirely won her friendship. The young bachelor praised the situation of his little property, which in the midst of a charming country offered delightful walks and all the pleasures of a rural existence. He promised the old woman to give her a room impervious to every enchantment, and to tell her in the long winter evenings some of the gruesome stories which gave her both fear and pleasure.