"
"When a marriage for love is on the carpet, you must expect to waste
time; but when it's a marriage of convenience between two people who
have no whims and who know what they want, it's soon arranged. Tomorrow
will be Saturday; you can shorten your day's ploughing a bit and start
about two o'clock, after dinner; you will be at Fourche by night;
there's a good moon just now, the roads are excellent, and it isn't more
than three leagues. Fourche is near Magnier. Besides, you can take the
mare."
"I should rather go afoot in this cool weather."
"True, but the mare's a fine beast, and a suitor makes a better
appearance if he comes well mounted. You must wear your new clothes and
carry a nice present of game to Pere Leonard. You will say that you come
with a message from me, you will talk with him, you will pass the
Sunday with his daughter, and you will return with a _yes_ or a _no_ on
Monday morning."
"Very good," replied Germain calmly, and yet he was not altogether calm.
Germain had always lived a virtuous life, as hard-working peasants do.
Married at twenty, he had loved but one woman in his life, and since he
had become a widower, although he was naturally impulsive and vivacious,
he had never laughed and dallied with any other. He had faithfully
cherished a genuine regret in his heart, and he did not yield to his
father-in-law without a feeling of dread and melancholy; but the
father-in-law had always managed his family judiciously, and Germain,
who had devoted himself unreservedly to the common work, and
consequently to him who personified it, the father of the
family,--Germain did not understand the possibility of rebelling against
sound arguments, against the common interest of all.
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