I could not answer. Tears of gratitude and love filled my eyes, and I
flung myself into Marguerite's arms.
"I wanted," she continued, "to arrange everything without telling you,
pay all my debts, and take a new flat. In October we should have been
back in Paris, and all would have come out; but since Prudence has
told you all, you will have to agree beforehand, instead of agreeing
afterward. Do you love me enough for that?"
It was impossible to resist such devotion. I kissed her hands ardently,
and said: "I will do whatever you wish."
It was agreed that we should do as she had planned. Thereupon, she went
wild with delight; danced, sang, amused herself with calling up pictures
of her new flat in all its simplicity, and began to consult me as to
its position and arrangement. I saw how happy and proud she was of this
resolution, which seemed as if it would bring us into closer and closer
relationship, and I resolved to do my own share. In an instant I decided
the whole course of my life. I put my affairs in order, and made over
to Marguerite the income which had come to me from my mother, and which
seemed little enough in return for the sacrifice which I was accepting.
There remained the five thousand francs a year from my father; and,
whatever happened, I had always enough to live on. I did not tell
Marguerite what I had done, certain as I was that she would refuse the
gift. This income came from a mortgage of sixty thousand francs on a
house that I had never even seen. All that I knew was that every three
months my father's solicitor, an old friend of the family, handed over
to me seven hundred and fifty francs in return for my receipt.
The day when Marguerite and I came to Paris to look for a flat, I went
to this solicitor and asked him what had to be done in order to make
over this income to another person. The good man imagined I was ruined,
and questioned me as to the cause of my decision. As I knew that I
should be obliged, sooner or later, to say in whose favour I made this
transfer, I thought it best to tell him the truth at once. He made none
of the objections that his position as friend and solicitor authorized
him to make, and assured me that he would arrange the whole affair in
the best way possible. Naturally, I begged him to employ the greatest
discretion in regard to my father, and on leaving him I rejoined
Marguerite, who was waiting for me at Julie Duprat's, where she had gone
in preference to going to listen to the moralizings of Prudence.