"You would have been as rich as you are beautiful to-morrow, without fail, if I had not promised my dear mother to accompany her to the midnight Mass to-night. The favorable hour falls just at the first stroke of Matins."
"To-day?"
"Between to-day and to-morrow."
"And can it not be put off?"
"Yes, it can be put off for seven years."
Dame Josserande heard nothing, as Pol was relating an interesting story, so as to distract her attention; but, while talking, he listened with all his ears.
Matheline laughed no longer, and thought,—
"Seven years! Can I wait seven years?" Then she continued:
"Beautiful bridegroom, how do you know that the propitious moment falls precisely at the hour of Matins? Who told you so?"
"The stars," replied Sylvestre Ker. "At midnight Mars and Saturn will arrive in diametrical opposition; Venus will seek Vesta; Mercury will disappear in the sun; and the planet without a name, that the deceased Thaël divined by calculation, I saw last night, steering its unknown route through space to come in conjunction with Jupiter. Ah! if I only dared disobey my dear mother." He was interrupted by a distant vibration of the bells of Plouharnel, which rang out the first signal of the midnight Mass.