The truth was, he had made one of those resolutions which seem illogical and foolish at first sight, but are natural to minds at once timid and exalted.  The suffering caused by Claudet’s revelations had become so acute that he was alarmed.  He recognized with dismay the disastrous effects of this hopeless love, and determined to employ a heroic remedy to arrest its further ravages.  This was nothing less than killing his love, by immediately getting Claudet married to Reine Vincart.  Sacrifices like this are easier to souls that have been subjected since their infancy to Christian discipline, and accustomed to consider the renunciation of mundane joys as a means of securing eternal salvation.  As soon as this idea had developed in Julien’s brain, he seized upon it with the precipitation of a drowning man, who distractedly lays hold of the first object that seems to offer him a means of safety, whether it be a dead branch or a reed.

“Listen,” he resumed; “at the very first explanation that we had together, I told you I did not intend to deprive you of your right to a portion of your natural father’s inheritance.  Until now, you have taken my word for it, and we have lived at the chateau like two brothers.  But now that a miserable question of money alone prevents you from marrying the woman you love, it is important that you should be legally provided for.  We will go to-morrow to Monsieur Arbillot, and ask him to draw up the deed, making over to you from me one half of the fortune of Claude de Buxieres.  You will then be, by law, and in the eyes of all, one of the desirable matches of the canton, and you can demand the hand of Mademoiselle Vincart, without any fear of being thought presumptuous or mercenary.”

Claudet, to whom this conclusion was wholly unexpected, was thunderstruck.  His emotion was so great that it prevented him from speaking.  In the obscurity of the room his deep-set eyes seemed larger, and shone with the tears he could not repress.

“Monsieur Julien,” said he, falteringly, “I can not find words to thank you.  I am like an idiot.  And to think that only a little while ago I suspected you of being tired of me, and regretting your benefits toward me!  What an animal I am!  I measure others by myself.  Well! can you forgive me?  If I do not express myself well, I feel deeply, and all I can say is that you have made me very happy!” He sighed heavily.  “The question is now,” continued he, “whether Reine will have me!  You may not believe me, Monsieur de Buxieres, but though I may seem very bold and resolute, I feel like a wet hen when I get near her.  I have a dreadful panic that she will send me away as I came.  I don’t know whether I can ever find courage to ask her.”

“Why should she refuse you?” said Julien, sadly, “she knows that you love her.  Do you suppose she loves any one else?”

“That I don’t know.  Although Reine is very frank, she does not let every one know what is passing in her mind, and with these young girls, I tell you, one is never sure of anything.  That is just what I fear may be possible.”