to our good Doctor Rigaud: 'Don't you think that a season in the South
would do my wife good?' The doctor answered: 'If it does not do her any
good it certainly won't do her any harm.' Then your husband added,
'just take a sheet of paper and write out a prescription. You
understand? It is for my mother-in-law, who will not be pleased at our
going away.'"

And as Micheline seemed to doubt what she was saying, the latter added:

"The doctor told me when I went to see him about it. I never had much
faith in doctors, and now--"

Micheline felt she was on delicate ground, and wanted to change the
subject. She soothed her mother as in days gone by, saying:

"Come, mamma; will you never be able to get used to your part? Must you
always be jealous? You know all wives leave their mothers to follow
their husbands. It is the law of nature. You, in your day, remember,
followed your husband, and your mother must have wept."

"Did my mother love me as I love you?" asked Madame Desvarennes,
impetuously. "I was brought up differently. We had not time to love
each other so much. We had to work. The happiness of spoiling one's
child is a privilege of the rich. For you there was no down warm enough
or silk soft enough to line your cradle. You have been petted and
worshipped for twenty years. Yet, it only needed a man, whom you
scarcely knew six months ago, to make you forget everything."

"I have not forgotten anything," replied Micheline, moved by these
passionate expressions. "And in my heart you still hold the same place."