"And I,--I will be so
kind to her!"
And so the marriage was completed, and the watch was at once given to
Marie. "Thank you, maman," said she, as the trinket was fastened to
her girdle. Had it been a pincushion that had cost three sous, it
would have affected her as much.
And then there was cake and wine and sweetmeats; and after a few
minutes Marie disappeared. For an hour or so the capitaine was taken
up with the congratulating of his friends, and with the efforts
necessary to the wearing of his new honours with an air of ease; but
after that time he began to be uneasy because his wife did not come
to him. At two or three in the afternoon he went to La Mere Bauche
to complain. "This lackadaisical nonsense is no good," he said. "At
any rate it is too late now. Marie had better come down among us and
show herself satisfied with her husband."
But Madame Bauche took Marie's part. "You must not be too hard on
Marie," she said. "She has gone through a good deal this week past,
and is very young; whereas, capitaine, you are not very young."
The capitaine merely shrugged his shoulders. In the mean time Mere
Bauche went up to visit her protegee in her own room, and came down
with a report that she was suffering from a headache.
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