“Towards 1803,” resumed Alain after a pause, “Monsieur de Boisfrelon, uncle of Madame de la Chanterie, came to Paris, his name having been erased from the list of emigres, and brought Madame the sum of two hundred thousand francs which her father-in-law, the old purveyor, had formerly entrusted to him for the benefit of his son’s children.  He persuaded the widow to return to Normandy; where she completed the education of her daughter and purchased on excellent terms and still by the advice of her uncle, a patrimonial estate.”

“Ah!” cried Godefroid.

“All that is still nothing,” said Monsieur Alain; “we have not yet reached the period of storms and darkness.  I resume: 

“In 1807, after four years of rest and peace, Madame de la Chanterie married her daughter to a gentleman of rank, whose piety, antecedents, and fortune offered every guarantee that could be given,—­a man who, to use a popular saying, ‘was after every one’s own heart,’ in the best society of the provincial city where Madame and her daughter passed their winters.  I should tell you that this society was composed of seven or eight families belonging to the highest nobility in France:  d’Esgrignon, Troisville, Casteran, Nouatre, etc.  At the end of eighteen months the baron deserted his wife, and disappeared in Paris, where he changed his name.

“Madame de la Chanterie never knew the causes of this desertion until the lightning of a dreadful storm revealed them.  Her daughter, brought up with anxious care and trained in the purest religious sentiments, kept total silence as to her troubles.  This lack of confidence in her mother was a painful blow to Madame de la Chanterie.  Already she had several times noticed in her daughter indications of the reckless disposition of the father, increased in the daughter by an almost virile strength of will.

“The husband, however, abandoned his home of his own free will, leaving his affairs in a pitiable condition.  Madame de la Chanterie is, even to this day, amazed at the catastrophe, which no human foresight could have prevented.  The persons she prudently consulted before the marriage had assured her that the suitor’s fortune was clear and sound, and that no mortgages were on his estate.  Nevertheless it appeared, after the husband’s departure, that for ten years his debts had exceeded the entire value of his property.  Everything was therefore sold, and the poor young wife, now reduced to her own means, came back to her mother.  Madame de la Chanterie knew later that the most honorable persons of the province had vouched for her son-in-law in their own interests; for he owed them all large sums of money, and they looked upon his marriage with Mademoiselle de la Chanterie as a means to recover them.