cca conveyed to Ivanhoe.

One month passed away in the strangest uncertainties respecting the
marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon. A party of unbelievers denied the
marriage altogether; the believers, on the other hand, affirmed it. At
the end of two weeks, the faction of unbelief received a vigorous blow
in the sale of du Bousquier's house to the Marquis de Troisville, who
only wanted a simple establishment in Alencon, intending to go to Paris
after the death of the Princess Scherbellof; he proposed to await that
inheritance in retirement, and then to reconstitute his estates. This
seemed positive. The unbelievers, however, were not crushed. They
declared that du Bousquier, married or not, had made an excellent
sale, for the house had only cost him twenty-seven thousand francs.
The believers were depressed by this practical observation of the
incredulous. Choisnel, Mademoiselle Cormon's notary, asserted the
latter, had heard nothing about the marriage contract; but the
believers, still firm in their faith, carried off, on the twentieth day,
a signal victory: Monsieur Lepressoir, the notary of the liberals, went
to Mademoiselle Cormon's house, and the contract was signed.

This was the first of the numerous sacrifices which Mademoiselle Cormon
was destined to make to her husband. Du Bousquier bore the deepest
hatred to Choisnel; to him he owed the refusal of the hand of
Mademoiselle Armande,--a refusal which, as he believed, had influenced
that of Mademoiselle Cormon. This circumstance alone made the marriage
drag along. Mademoiselle received several anonymous letters. She
learned, to her great astonishment, that Suzanne was as truly a virgin
as herself so far as du Bousquier was concerned, for that seducer
with the false toupet could never be the hero of any such adventure.
Mademoiselle Cormon disdained anonymous letters; but she wrote to
Suzanne herself, on the ground of enlightening the Maternity Society.
Suzanne, who had no doubt heard of du Bousquier's proposed marriage,
acknowledged her trick, sent a thousand francs to the society, and did
all the harm she could to the old purveyor. Mademoiselle Cormon convoked
the Maternity Society, which held a special meeting at which it was
voted that the association would not in future assist any misfortunes
about to happen, but solely those that had happened.

In spite of all these various events which kept the town in the choicest
gossip, the banns were published in the churc