On the evening
before the day Madame Bauche had met her in the passages, and kissed
her as she wished her good night. Marie knew little about
sacrifices, but she felt that it was a sacrificial kiss.
In those days a sort of diligence with the mails for Olette passed
through Prades early in the morning, and a conveyance was sent from
Vernet to bring Adolphe to the baths. Never was prince or princess
expected with more anxiety. Madame Bauche was up and dressed long
before the hour, and was heard to say five several times that she was
sure he would not come. The capitaine was out and on the high road,
moving about with his wooden leg, as perpendicular as a lamp-post and
almost as black. Marie also was up, but nobody had seen her. She
was up and had been out about the place before any of them were
stirring; but now that the world was on the move she lay hidden like
a hare in its form.
And then the old char-a-banc clattered up to the door, and Adolphe
jumped out of it into his mother's arms. He was fatter and fairer
than she had last seen him, had a larger beard, was more fashionably
clothed, and certainly looked more like a man. Marie also saw him
out of her little window, and she thought that he looked like a god.
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