They were both enraptured at now being free to love each other
in the romantic old mill, garlanded with ivy, pending the time when they
would resolutely fling it to the ground to install in its place the great
white meal stores and huge new mill-stones, which, with their conquering
ambition, they often dreamt of.
During the years that followed, Mathieu and Marianne witnessed other
departures. The three daughters, Louise, Madeleine, and Marguerite, in
turn took their flight from the family nest. All three found husbands in
the district. Louise, a plump brunette, all gayety and health, with
abundant hair and large laughing eyes, married notary Mazaud of Janville,
a quiet, pensive little man, whose occasional silent smiles alone denoted
the perfect satisfaction which he felt at having found a wife of such
joyous disposition. Then Madeleine, whose chestnut tresses were tinged
with gleaming gold, and who was slimmer than her sister, and of a more
dreamy style of beauty, her character and disposition refined by her
musical tastes, made a love match which was quite a romance. Herbette,
the architect, who became her husband, was a handsome, elegant man,
already celebrated; he owned near Monvel a park-like estate, where he
came to rest at times from the fatigue of his labors in Paris.
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