Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/252

 would make the salary from any rank he might attain, superfluous.

“Alas!” said Savinien, “it will take a long time to overcome my mother’s opposition. Before my departure, with the alternative of seeing me stay with her if she consented to my marriage with Ursule, or of only seeing me from time to time with the knowledge that I was exposed to the dangers of my profession, she let me go—”

“But, Savinien, we shall be together,” said Ursule, taking his hand and shaking it half impatiently.

To see each other, and never to part, was to her the whole of love; she did not look beyond that; and her pretty gesture, and her rebellious accent were expressive of so much innocence that Savinien and the doctor relented. The resignation was sent in, and the presence of her fiancé gave the greatest radiance to Ursule’s birthday. Several months after, toward May, domestic life at Doctor Minoret’s resumed its tranquillity, but with one more regular visitor. The young viscount’s attentions were all the more promptly construed as those of an intended husband, as, whether at mass, or out walking, his and Ursule’s manners, although reserved, betrayed the understanding of their hearts. Dionis called the attention of the heirs to the fact that the old man never demanded his interest from Madame de Portenduère, and that the old lady already owed it for three years.

“She will be forced to yield, and consent to her