A few moments after, she went down to the garden and there found her guardian, to whom she gave Savinien’s letter to read. Both sat down on the bench, under the clump of climbing plants, opposite the Chinese pavilion; Ursule waiting for some remark from the old man, and the old man reflecting much too long a time for an impatient girl. Finally, the result of their secret interview was the following letter, which the doctor had doubtless partly dictated:
“MONSIEUR,
“I cannot but feel very much honored by the letter in which you offer me your hand; but at my age, and according to the laws of my bringing up, I was obliged to show it to my guardian, who is all the family I have, and whom I love both as a father and a friend. Here are the cruel objections he has given me and which must serve as my answer. I am, Monsieur le Vicomte, a poor girl whose future fortune depends entirely, not only on my godfather’s good will, but still more on the uncertain measures he will take to elude the ill-will that his heirs bear me. Although I am the legitimate daughter of Joseph Mirouët, bandmaster in the Forty-fifth Infantry Regiment, as he was my guardian’s natural half-brother, a suit, although for no reason, might be brought against a young girl who would be defenceless. You see, monsieur, that my small fortune is not my greatest misfortune. I have many reasons for being humble. It is for your sake, not for my own, that I submit such observations to you, which are often of little weight with loving, devoted hearts. But you must also consider, monsieur, that if I did not lay them before you I should be suspected of wishing to make your tenderness overlook obstacles that the world, and your mother particularly, would deem insurmountable. I shall be sixteen in four months. Perhaps you will acknowledge that we are both too
