ook your wife from the country than that
you brought home the most charming Parisienne; and that the Mouillards
from father to son had always taken their wives from Bourges. He entered
perfectly into my sentiments, and we parted the best of friends. Now, my
boy, the facts are ascertained: Mademoiselle Charnot is another's; you
must get your mourning over and start with me to-night. To-morrow morning
we shall be in Bourges, and you'll soon be laughing over your Parisian
delusions, I warrant you!"

I had heard my uncle out without interrupting him, though wrath,
astonishment, and my habitual respect for M. Mouillard were struggling
for the mastery within me. I needed all my strength of mind to answer,
with apparent calm.

"Yesterday, uncle, I had not made up my mind; today I have."

"You are coming?"

"I am not. Your action in this matter, uncle--I do not know if you are
aware of it--has been perfectly unheard-of. I can not acknowledge your
right to act thus. It puts between you and me two hundred miles of rail,
and that forever. Do you understand me? You have taken the liberty of
disclosing a secret which was not yours to tell; you have revealed a
passion which, as it was hopeless, should not have been further
mentioned, and certainly not exposed to such humiliation. You went to see
Monsieur Charnot without reflecting whether you were not bringing trouble
into his household; without reflecting, further, whether such conduct as
yours, which may perhaps be usual among your business acquaintances, was
likely to succeed with me. Perhaps you thought it would. You have merely
completed an experiment, begun long ago, which proves that we do not
understand life in the same way, and that it will be better for both of
us if I continue to live in Paris, and you continue to live at Bourges."

"Ha! that's how you take it, young man, is it? You refuse to come? you
try to bully me?"

"Yes."

"Consider carefully before you let me leave here alone. You know the
amount of your fortune--fourteen hundred francs a year, which means
poverty in Paris."

"Yes, I do."

"Well, then, attend to what I am about to say. For years past I have been
saving my practice for you--that is, an honorable and lucrative position
all ready for you to step into. But I am tired at length of your fads and
your fancies. If you do not take up your quarters at Bourges within a
fortnight from now, the Mouillard practice will change its name within
three wee