This
certificate acted decisively on Valentine, who, unwilling to remain at
home, and weary of the troubles of housekeeping, understood what precious
help she might derive from this woman. On her side Celeste certainly
relied upon power being surrendered to her. Two months later, by favoring
Lucie's excessive partiality to religious practices, she had helped her
into a convent. Gaston showed himself only when he secured a few days'
leave. And so Andree alone remained at home, impeding by her presence the
great general pillage that Celeste dreamt of. The maid therefore became a
most active worker on behalf of her young mistress's marriage.
Andree, it should be said, was comprised in Ambroise's universal
conquest. She had met him at her uncle Du Hordel's house for a year
before it occurred to the latter to marry them. She was a very gentle
girl, a little golden-haired sheep, as her mother sometimes said. And
that handsome, smiling young man, who evinced so much kindness towards
her, became the subject of her thoughts and hopes whenever she suffered
from loneliness and abandonment. Thus, when her uncle prudently
questioned her, she flung herself into his arms, weeping big tears of
gratitude and confession.
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