er, her one and only friend stood
beside her once again, to leave her no more. The horrors of that very
night, the terrible ball-room full of glittering uniforms and clanking
swords, the odious face and voice of Ratoneau;--her father had beckoned
her away, had taken her from it all for ever. He had told her in a few
words of the Prefect's letter and his resolution, without even taking
the trouble to ask her if she would consent to marry her cousin. "It is
the only thing to be done," he said. Neither of them had even mentioned
her mother. The suspicion that his wife had had something to do with
this imperial order made Herve even more furious than the order itself,
and more resolved to settle the affair in his own way.

"Now I understand," he thought, "why Adelaide invited the brute to this
ball. I wager that she knew what was coming. It is time I showed them
all who is the master of this house!"

And now, when everything was arranged, when the bridegroom and the bride
were actually waiting in the chapel, when every minute was of importance
and might bring some fatal interruption--now, here was the excellent old
Cure full of curious questions and narrow-minded objections.

"Monsieur le Comte, impossible!" he cried in the corridor. "Marry
mademoiselle your daughter to Ange de la Mariniere--and without any
proper notice, without witnesses, at midnight, unknown to his parents!
Do you take me for a constitutional priest, may I ask?"

"No, Monsieur le Cure, and that is why I demand this service of you.
You, an old friend of both families, I send for you rather than for my
own Cure of Lancilly."

"Ah, I dare say! But do I understand that you are disobeying an order
from the Emperor? Am I to ruin myself, by aiding and abetting you?
Besides--"

"No, Monsieur le Cure, you understand nothing of the kind. I explain
nothing. You run yourself into no danger--but if you did, I should ask
you all the more. A man like you, who held firm to his post through the
Revolution--"

"Pardon--I did not hold firm. Monsieur de la Mariniere protected me."

"And now I will protect you. Listen. I have had no order from the
Emperor. I have heard, by means of a friend, that such an order is on
its way. It would compel me to marry my daughter to a man she hates, a
degrading connection for me. There is only one way of saving her. You
know that she and young Ange love each other--they have suffered for
it--we will legalise this love of theirs. Wh