Nor indeed did his conscience
tell him that such a marriage should be permitted. That would be too
much. If every pretty girl were allowed to marry the first young man
that might fall in love with her, what would the world come to?
And it soon appeared that there was not time enough--that the time
was growing very scant. In three months Adolphe would be back. And
if everything was not arranged by that time, matters might still go
astray.
And then Madame Bauche asked her final question: "You do not think,
do you, that you can ever marry Adolphe?" And as she asked it the
accustomed terror of her green spectacles magnified itself tenfold.
Marie could only answer by another burst of tears.
The affair was at last settled among them. Marie said that she would
consent to marry the capitaine when she should hear from Adolphe's
own mouth that he, Adolphe, loved her no longer. She declared with
many tears that her vows and pledges prevented her from promising
more than this. It was not her fault, at any rate not now, that she
loved her lover. It was not her fault--not now at least--that she
was bound by these pledges. When she heard from his own mouth that
he had discarded her, then she would marry the capitaine--or indeed
sacrifice herself in any other way that La Mere Bauche might desire.
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