Philippe left the room, having dropped this hint into Flore’s mind to waken a vague idea of vengeance which might please the girl, who did, in fact, feel a sort of happiness as she saw this dreadful being at her feet.  In this scene Philippe repeated, in miniature, that of Richard III. with the queen he had widowed.  The meaning of it is that personal calculation, hidden under sentiment, has a powerful influence on the heart, and is able to dissipate even genuine grief.  This is how, in individual life, Nature does that which in works of genius is thought to be consummate art:  she works by self-interest,—­the genius of money.

At the beginning of April, 1823, the hall of Jean-Jacques Rouget’s house was the scene of a splendid dinner, given to celebrate the signing of the marriage contract between Mademoiselle Flore Brazier and the old bachelor.  The guests were Monsieur Heron, the four witnesses, Messieurs Mignonnet, Carpentier, Hochon, and Goddet, the mayor and the curate, Agathe Bridau, Madame Hochon, and her friend Madame Borniche, the two old ladies who laid down the law to the society of Issoudun.  The bride was much impressed by this concession, obtained by Philippe, and intended by the two ladies as a mark of protection to a repentant woman.  Flore was in dazzling beauty.  The curate, who for the last fortnight had been instructing the ignorant crab-girl, was to allow her, on the following day, to make her first communion.  The marriage was the text of the following pious article in the “Journal du Cher,” published at Bourges, and in the “Journal de l’Indre,” published at Chateauroux: 

Issoudun.—­The revival of religion is progressing in Berry.  Friends of the Church and all respectable persons in this town were yesterday witnesses of a marriage ceremony by which a leading man of property put an end to a scandalous connection, which began at the time when the authority of religion was overthrown in this region.  This event, due to the enlightened zeal of the clergy of Issoudun will, we trust, have imitators, and put a stop to marriages, so-called, which have never been solemnized, and were only contracted during the disastrous epoch of revolutionary rule.

One remarkable feature of the event to which we allude, is the fact that it was brought about at the entreaty of a colonel belonging to the old army, sent to our town by a sentence of the Court of Peers, who may, in consequence, lose the inheritance of his uncle’s property.  Such disinterestedness is so rare in these days that it deserves public mention.

By the marriage contract Rouget secured to Flore a dower of one hundred thousand francs, and a life annuity of thirty thousand more.

After the wedding, which was sumptuous, Agathe returned to Paris the happiest of mothers, and told Joseph and Desroches what she called the good news.

“Your son Philippe is too wily a man not to keep his paw on that inheritance,” said the lawyer, when he had heard Madame Bridau to the end.  “You and your poor Joseph will never get one penny of your brother’s property.”