Altogether the company were delighted, enchanted, and declared
that everything was for the best; in reality all they thought about was
the wedding feast.
Therese and Laurent were clever enough to maintain a suitable demeanour,
by simply displaying tender and obliging friendship to one another. They
gave themselves an air of accomplishing an act of supreme devotedness.
Nothing in their faces betrayed a suspicion of the terror and desire
that disturbed them. Madame Raquin watched the couple with faint smiles,
and a look of feeble, but grateful goodwill.
A few formalities required fulfilling. Laurent had to write to his
father to ask his consent to the marriage. The old peasant of Jeufosse
who had almost forgotten that he had a son at Paris, answered him, in
four lines, that he could marry, and go and get hanged if he chose. He
gave him to understand that being resolved never to give him a sou,
he left him master of his body, and authorised him to be guilty of all
imaginable follies. A permission accorded in such terms, caused Laurent
singular anxiety.
Madame Raquin, after reading the letter of this unnatural father, in a
transport of kind-heartedness, acted very foolishly.
Pages:
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183