ish, saying if it were granted she would be so happy,
and that after the wedding she would certainly be cured. Moreover, the
question should be left to Monseigneur; he alone should decide it. That
same evening, when the Bishop was there, she explained her desire to
him, fixing her eyes on his, regarding him steadily and beseechingly,
and speaking in her sweet, earnest voice, under which there was hidden
an ardent supplication, unexpressed in words. Monseigneur realised it,
and understood the truth, and he appointed a day in the middle of April
for the ceremony.

Then they lived in great commotion from the necessary bustle attendant
upon the preparations for the marriage. Notwithstanding his official
position as guardian, Hubert was obliged to ask permission, or rather
the consent of the Director of Public Assistance, who always represented
the family council, Angelique not yet being of age; and Monsieur
Grandsire, the Justice of the Peace, was charged with all legal details,
in order to avoid as much as possible the painful side of the position
to the young girl and to Felicien. But the dear child, realising that
something was being kept back, asked one day to have her little book
brought up to her, wishing to put it herself into the hands of her
betrothed. She was now, and would henceforth remain, in a state of such
sincere humility that she wished him to know thoroughly from what a
low position he had drawn her, to elevate her to the glory of his
well-honoured name and his great fortune. These were her parchments,
her titles to nobility; her position was explained by this official
document, this entry on the calendar where there was only a date
followed by a number. She turned over all the leaves once more, then
gave it to him without being confused, happy in thinking that in herself
she was nothing, but that she owed everything to him. So deeply touched
was he by this act, that he knelt down, kissed her hands while tears
came to his eyes, as if it were she who had made him the one gift, the
royal gift of her heart.

For two weeks the preparations occupied all Beaumont, both the upper and
the lower town being in a state of great excitement therefrom. It was
said that twenty working-girls were engaged day and night upon the
trousseau. The wedding-dress alone required three persons to make it,
and there was to be a _corbeille_, or present from the bridegroom, to
the value of a million of francs: a fluttering of laces,