Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/351

 He got up and left, but outside he found the atmosphere as oppressive as in the little parlor.

“And yet there must be an end to all this,” he said to himself as he reached home.

“Your bond, my child?” said the justice of the peace, somewhat astonished at Ursule’s serenity after so strange an incident.

When she brought her own and La Bougival’s bonds, Ursule found the justice striding up and down.

“Have you any idea of the object of that great booby’s proceedings?” he said.

“None that I can tell,” she replied.

Monsieur Bongrand looked at her in surprise.

“Then we have the same idea,” he answered. “Here, keep the numbers of these two bonds in case I should lose them; one should always take that precaution.”

Bongrand then himself wrote down the number of Ursule’s and of her nurse’s bond on a card.

“Good-bye, my child; I shall be away two days, but I shall be here on the third for my sitting.”