The justice of the peace nodded his head thoughtfully, and Goupil left, to go and negotiate for the better of the two attorneys’ practices in Nemours. Everyone remained with Ursule, and devoted himself all through the evening to restoring peace and tranquillity to her mind, upon which the satisfaction given by the clerk had already worked a change.
“All Nemours will know this,” said Bongrand.
“You see, my child, that God was not angry with you,” said the curé.
Minoret was rather late in returning from Le Rouvre, and dined late. About nine o’clock, at nightfall, he was in his Chinese pavilion, digesting his dinner beside his wife, with whom he was making plans for Désiré’s future. Désiré had become very steady since he had belonged to the magistracy; he was working, and there was a chance of his succeeding the public prosecutor of Fontainebleau, who, it was said, was being promoted to Melun. A wife must be found for him, some poor girl belonging to an old and noble family; he might then attain to the Paris magistracy. Perhaps they might have him elected deputy for Fontainebleau, where Zélie thought of going to settle for the winter, after spending the warm weather at Le Rouvre. Whilst inwardly congratulating himself on having arranged all for the best, Minoret had ceased to think of Ursule, at the very moment when the drama which he had begun so simply was tangling itself in a terrible manner.
