Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/205

 doctor and Ursule went to High Mass. Savinien’s deliverance and his return in the doctor’s company had explained the object of the latter’s absence to the politicians of the town and to the heirs who were assembled in the market-place in a conclave similar to the one they had held there a fortnight before. To the great astonishment of the groups, on the way out from mass, Madame de Portenduère stopped old Minoret, who offered her his arm and took her home. The old lady wished to invite him, as well as his ward, to dinner that same day, telling him that Monsieur le Curé would be her other guest.

“He wanted to show Ursule Paris,” said Minoret-Levrault.

“Plague take him! the old man never takes a step without his little nurse!” cried Crémière.

“There must be great intimacy between them for Madame de Portenduère to take his arm,” said Massin.

“And you have never guessed that your uncle has sold his stock and released young Portenduère!” cried Goupil. “He refused it to my master, but he did not refuse his mistress—Ah! you are done for. The viscount will propose marriage settlements instead of a bond, and the doctor will make the husband indebted to his treasure of a goddaughter for all that it is necessary to give in order to conclude such an alliance.”

“It might not be a mistake to marry Ursule to Monsieur Savinien, “said the butcher. “The old lady is giving a dinner to-night to Monsieur Minoret,