le such a scandal! But
there are abominable forces which we cannot always overcome; and so a day
or two ago the archbishop was obliged to put him under interdict....
You must choose somebody else, madame."

It was quite a disaster. Eve gazed at Rosemonde and Duthil, without
daring to ask them for particulars, but wondering what creature could
have been so audacious as to turn a priest from the path of duty. She
must assuredly be some shameless demented woman! And it seemed to Eve as
if this crime gave a finishing touch to her own misfortune. With a wave
of the arm, which took in all the luxury around her, the roses steeping
her in perfume, and the crush of guests around the buffet, she murmured:
"Ah! decidedly there's nothing but corruption left; one can no longer
rely on anybody!"

Whilst this was going on, Camille happened to be alone in her own room
getting ready to leave the house with Gerard. And all at once her brother
Hyacinthe joined her there. "Ah! it's you, youngster!" she exclaimed.
"Well, make haste if you want to kiss me, for I'm off now, thank
goodness!"

He kissed her as she suggested, and then in a doctoral way replied: "I
thought you had more self-command. The delight you have been showing all
this morning quite disgusts me."

A quiet glance of contempt was her only answer. However, he continued:
"You know very well that she'll take your Gerard from you again, directly
you come back to Paris."

At this Camille's cheeks turned white and her eyes flared. She stepped
towards her brother with clenched fists: "She! you say that she will take
him from me!"

The "she" they referred to was their own mother.

"Listen, my boy! I'll kill her first!" continued Camille. "Ah, no! she
needn't hope for that. I shall know how to keep the man that belongs to
me.... And as for you, keep your spite to yourself, for I know you,
remember; you are a mere child and a fool!"

He recoiled as if a viper were rearing its sharp, slender black head
before him; and having always feared her, he thought it best to beat a
retreat.

While the last guests were rushing upon the buffet and finishing the
pillage there, the bridal pair took their leave, before driving off to
the railway station. General de Bozonnet had joined a group in order to
vent his usual complaints about compulsory military service, and the
Marquis de Morigny was obliged to fetch him at the moment when the
Countess de Quinsac was kissing her son and daughter