Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 18.djvu/324

298 touching bluntness. They both looked down, and their silence was their first mutual confession of love. "Well," said Servin, "and you will be happy, will you not? Can any- thing purchase such happiness as that of two beings like you?"

"I am rich," said Grinevra, "if you will allow me to indemnify you "

"Indemnify!" Servin broke in. "Why, as soon as it is known that I have been the victim of a few little fools, and that I have sheltered a fugitive, all the Liberals in Paris will send me their daughters! Perhaps I shall be in your debt then."

Louis grasped his protector's hand, unable to speak a word; but at last he said, in a broken voice, "To you I shall owe all my happiness."

"Be happy; I unite you," said the painter with comic unction, laying his hands on the heads of the lovers.

This pleasantry put an end to their emotional mood. They looked at each other, and all three laughed. The Italian girl wrung Louis' hand with a passionate grasp, and with a simple impulse worthy of her Corsican traditions.

"Ah, but, my dear children," said Servin, "you fancy that now everything will go on swimmingly? Well, you are mis- taken." They looked at him in amazement.

"Do not be alarmed; I am the only person inconvenienced by your giddy behavior. But Madame Servin is the pink of propriety, and I really do not know how we shall settle matters with her."

"Heavens ! I had forgotten. To-morrow Madame Eoguin and Laure's mother are coming to you --"

"I understand!" said the painter, interrupting her.

"But you can justify yourself," said the girl, with a toss of her head of emphatic pride. "Monsieur Louis," and she turned to him with an arch look, "has surely no longer an antipathy for the King's Government?" — "Well, then," she went on, after seeing him smile, "to-morrow morning I shall address a petition to one of the most influential persons at the