"
"I am glad to have you on my side, madame."
"I am not on your side, monsieur. I am on nobody's side. And Angelique
is on nobody's side. Angelique favors no suitor. She is like me: she
would live a single life to the end of her days, as holy as a nun, with
never a thought of courtship and weddings, but I have set my face
against such a life for her. I have seen the folly of it. Here am I, a
poor old helpless woman, living without respect or consideration, when I
ought to be looked up to in the Territory."
"You are mistaken, madame. Your name is always mentioned with
veneration."
"Ah, if I had sons crowding your peltry traffic and taking their share
of these rich lands, then you would truly see me venerated. I have
thought of these things many a day; and I am not going to let Angelique
escape a husband, however such creatures may try a woman's religious
nature."
"I will make myself as light a trial as possible," suggested Colonel
Menard.
"You have had one wife."
"Yes, madame."
"But she died.
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