g her
eyes.

"Nothing is the matter," replied Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel; "but you
should marry him at once."

"Do you believe that marriage would divert his mind?" asked the
chevalier.

Charlotte looked reprovingly at Monsieur du Halga, whom she now began
to think ill-mannered, depraved, immoral, without religion, and very
ridiculous about his dog,--opinions which her aunt, defending the old
sailor, combated.

"I shall lecture Calyste to-morrow morning," said the baron, whom
the others had thought asleep. "I do not wish to go out of this world
without seeing my grandson, a little pink and white Guenic with a Breton
cap on his head."

"Calyste doesn't say a word," said old Zephirine, "and there's no making
out what's the matter with him. He doesn't eat; I don't see what he
lives on. If he gets his meals at Les Touches, the devil's kitchen
doesn't nourish him."

"He is in love," said the chevalier, risking that opinion very timidly.

"Come, come, old gray-beard, you've forgotten to put in your stake!"
cried Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel. "When you begin to think of your young
days you forget everything."

"Come to breakfast to-morrow," said old Zephirine to her friend
Jacqueline; "my brother will have had a talk with his son, and we can
settle the matter finally. One nail, you know, drives out another."

"Not among Bretons," said the chevalier.

The next day Calyste saw Charlotte, as she arrived dressed with
unusual care, just after the baron had given him, in the dining-room,
a discourse on matrimony, to which he could make no answer. He now knew
the ignorance of his father and mother and all their friends; he had
gathered the fruits of the tree of knowledge, and knew himself to be
as much isolated as if he did not speak the family language. He merely
requested his father to give him a few days' grace. The old baron rubbed
his hands with joy, and gave fresh life to the baroness by whispering in
her ear what he called the good news.

Breakfast was gay; Charlotte, to whom the baron had given a hint, was
sparkling. After the meal was over, Calyste went out upon the portico
leading to the garden, followed by Charlotte; he gave her his arm and
led her to the grotto. Their parents and friends were at the window,
looking at them with a species of tenderness. Presently Charlotte,
uneasy at her suitor's silence, looked back and saw them, which gave her
an opportunity of beginning the conversation by saying to Calyste,--