I see very plainly that I can only hope to obtain you from your godfather; and your respect for him makes you still dearer to me.  Before replying to the admiral, I must have an interview with the doctor; on his reply my whole future will depend.  Whatever comes of it, know this, that rich or poor, the daughter of a band master or the daughter of a king, you are the woman whom the voice of my heart points out to me.  Dear Ursula, we live in times when prejudices which might once have separated us have no power to prevent our marriage.  To you, then, I offer the feelings of my heart, to your uncle the guarantees which secure to him your happiness.  He has not seen that I, in a few hours, came to love you more than he has loved you in fifteen years.

Until this evening. 
Savinien.

“Here, godfather,” said Ursula, holding the letter out to him with a proud gesture.

“Ah, my child!” cried the doctor when he had read it, “I am happier than even you.  He repairs all his faults by this resolution.”

After dinner Savinien presented himself, and found the doctor walking with Ursula by the balustrade of the terrace overlooking the river.  The viscount had received his clothes from Paris, and had not missed heightening his natural advantages by a careful toilet, as elegant as though he were striving to please the proud and beautiful Comtesse de Kergarouet.  Seeing him approach her from the portico, the poor girl clung to her uncle’s arm as though she were saving herself from a fall over a precipice, and the doctor heard the beating of her heart, which made him shudder.

“Leave us, my child,” he said to the girl, who went to the pagoda and sat upon the steps, after allowing Savinien to take her hand and kiss it respectfully.

“Monsieur, will you give this dear hand to a naval captain?” he said to the doctor in a low voice.

“No,” said Minoret, smiling; “we might have to wait too long, but—­I will give her to a lieutenant.”

Tears of joy filled the young man’s eyes as he pressed the doctor’s hand affectionately.

“I am about to leave,” he said, “to study hard and try to learn in six months what the pupils of the Naval School take six years to acquire.”

“You are going?” said Ursula, springing towards them from the pavilion.

“Yes, mademoiselle, to deserve you.  Therefore the more eager I am to go, the more I prove to you my affection.”

“This is the 3rd of October,” she said, looking at him with infinite tenderness; “do not go till after the 19th.”

“Yes,” said the old man, “we will celebrate Saint-Savinien’s day.”

“Good-by, then,” cried the young man.  “I must spend this week in Paris, to take the preliminary steps, buy books and mathematical instruments, and try to conciliate the minister and get the best terms that I can for myself.”

Ursula and her godfather accompanied Savinien to the gate.  Soon after he entered his mother’s house they saw him come out again, followed by Tiennette carrying his valise.