"What's the matter with your mother this evening?" Denoisel asked Renée.
They were alone, as Mme. Mauperin had just gone upstairs to bed, and M.
Mauperin to have a look round at the works, which were on late that
night.
"What's the matter with her, she seems as----"
"Surly as a bulldog--say it out."
"Well, but what's it all about?"
"Ah, that's just it," and Renée began to laugh. "The fact is I've just
lost a chance of being married--and so here I am still."
"Another? But then that's your speciality!"
"Oh, this is only the fourteenth. That's only an average number; and
it's all through you that I've lost this chance."
"Through me? Well, I never! What do you mean?"
Renée got up, put her hands in her pockets, and walked up and down the
room from one end to the other. Every now and then she stopped short,
turned round on one heel, and gave a sort of whistle.
"Yes, through you!" she said, coming back to Denoisel. "What should you
think if I told you that I had refused eighty thousand pounds?"
"They must have been astonished."
"I can't say that I wasn't rather tempted. It's no good setting up for
being better than I am; and then, too, with you I don't make any
pretences. Well, I'll own that just for a minute I was very nearly
caught. It was M. Barousse who arranged it all--very nicely indeed.
Then, here at home, they worked me up to it; mamma and Henri besieged
me; I was bored to death about it all day long. And then, too, quite
exceptionally for me, I began to have fancies, too. Anyhow, it is quite
certain that I slept very badly two nights. These big fortunes do keep
you awake. Then, too, to be quite just, I must say that I thought a
great deal about papa in the midst of it all. Wouldn't he have been
proud--wouldn't he, now? Wouldn't he have revelled in my four thousand a
year? He has so much vanity always where I am concerned. Do you remember
his indignation and wrath that time? 'A son-in-law who would allow my
daughter to get in an omnibus!' He was superb, wasn't he? Then I began
to think of you--yes, of you--and your ideas, your paradoxes, your
theories, of all sorts of things you had said to me; I thought of your
contempt for money, and as I thought of it--well, I suppose it is
catching, for I felt the same contempt myself. And so all at once, one
fine morning, I just cut it all short. No, you influence me too much, my
dear boy, decidedly."
"Well, but I'm--I'm an idiot, Renée. Oh, I'm so sorry. I--I thought that
sort of thing was not catching--indeed I did. Come, really now, was it
my fault?"
"Yes, yours--in a great measure--and then just a little his fault, too."
"Ah!"
"Yes, it was just a little M. Lemeunier's. When I felt the money getting
into my head, when I was seriously thinking of marrying him, why, I just
looked at him. And you didn't know you were speaking so truly the other
day. I suddenly felt that I was a woman--oh, you've no idea what it was
like. Then on the other hand I saw how good he was. Oh, he really is
goodness itself. I tried him in every way, I turned him inside out, it
worried me to find him so perfect; but it was no use, there was no fault
to find in him. He is thoroughly good, that man is. Oh, he's quite
different from Reverchon and the others. Only fancy what he said to me:
'Mademoiselle,' he said, 'I know that you don't care for me, but will
you let me wait a little and see if you can dislike me less than you do
now?' It was quite pathetic. Sometimes I felt inclined to say to him:
'Suppose we were to sit down and cry a little together, shall we?'
Fortunately, when he made me feel inclined to cry, papa, on the other
hand, made me want to laugh. He looked so funny, my dear old father,
half gay and half sad. I never saw such a resigned kind of happiness.
The sadness of losing me, and the thought of seeing me make a good match
made him feel so mixed up. Well, it's all finished now, thank Heaven! He
makes great eyes at me as though he's angry--didn't you notice, when
mamma was looking at us? But he is not angry at all in reality. He's
very glad in his heart; I can see that."