However, when she was gone, both the gentlemen agreed that the little
fellow was quite right, and showed his sense, and that if they had
been only two years old, they would have cried too.

That was all in my favour when I entreated M. de Nidemerle to let me
have a visit from my sister-in-law,--not a mere call of ceremony, but
a stay at the chateau long enough for me to get acquainted with her.
Not only was she the only sister of my dear Philippe, but the
Marquis, her uncle, was her guardian and only near relative, so that
he had a right to insist, more especially as the old Countess was
imbecile and bedridden.

I think he felt towards me much as he would have done if he had been
shut up in a room with Gaspard, ready to give me anything I begged
for, provided I would not cry. He was very good to me, and I could
not but be sorry for the poor, bereaved, broken old man, and try to
be a daughter to him; and thus our relations were very different from
what they had been on our journey to Paris together in the coach. At
any rate, he promised me that I should be gratified, and the day
after my brother left us, he actually went over to Chateau
d'Aubepine, and brought off his niece in the carriage with him,
presenting her to me in the hall like the spoils of war. She was
frightened, formal, and ceremonious all super time, but I thought she
was beginning to thaw, and was more afraid of the Marquis than of me.
We played at cards all the evening, the Cure being sent for to make
up the set, and now and then I caught her great eyes looking at me
wistfully; indeed, I was obliged to avoid them lest they should make
me weep; for it was almost the look that my Philippe used to cast on
me in those early days when we had not begun to know one another.