“Ugly or pretty, I am yours entirely now to do with as you please.”
“Will you sleep downstairs?”
“Anywhere you choose to put me.”
“Will you do as you are told and let me love you and scold you when you need it?”
“I am your slave from this hour!”
“You dear bad old thing!” she cried. “I am going to get even with you now, for all your obstinacy!”
Then she hugged and cuffed me, shaking me about like a doll, and, without waiting a minute, called Florimond and his white-capped assistants who carried me feet first down the narrow stair and put me down in the big bed in the bright room, and there Martine and Glodie tucked me up and fussed about me, telling me over and over again that now that they had me downstairs I should see what good care they would take of me.
Do you know I really enjoyed it? And, having given in to my daughter completely, strangely enough I find that it is I who really direct and manage the whole household.
Martine spends the greater part of the day in my room now and we have long talks about one time in particular when I sat by her bedside, because it was she who was laid up with a sprained foot. The naughty little cat had jumped out of the window one night to meet her sweetheart; I caught her, and in spite of the sprain, I gave her a good trouncing; she laughs at it now and says I did not hurt enough, but in those days it was impossible to keep her in order no matter what you did; she always managed to slip through my fingers, but she kept her head nevertheless and some one else lost his, we must suppose, as he is now her husband. She laughs and sighs over those old days, and says it is all over now; that there are no more jokes for her; and then we talk of Florimond. She does justice to his good qualities, like the sensible woman that she is, but admits that he does not amuse her; marriage, however, is not intended for an amusement.
“No one knows that better than you do, Father, but we must make the best of what we have. You might as well try to draw water out of a sieve as to look for love in a husband, but I am not one to cry my eyes out for what I cannot have; I am not so badly off, and contented enough on the whole; but I can’t help thinking how different things are now from what I used to expect. How far our youthful dreams are from the things we come to accept in later years! I don’t know if it is sad or ridiculous, but when I remember all the hopes and fears, vows and flames, and for what? To make some man’s pot boil. After all, it is as much as most of us deserve, but if any one had told me so, once upon a time!—Well, there is always some fun to be got out of it. Laughter is a sauce that would make anything taste good, and that has never been lacking to you and me, Daddy; we can always laugh when we have made fools of ourselves.”