"What is your business, madame?" said Hulot, with a flourish.
She rose, seized Hulot by the arm, and said in a voice hoarse with
emotion:
"At last--I have found you!"
"Adeline!" exclaimed the Baron in bewilderment, and he locked the shop
door. "Joseph, go out the back way," he added to the stove-fitter.
"My dear!" she said, forgetting everything in her excessive joy, "you
can come home to us all; we are rich. Your son draws a hundred and
sixty thousand francs a year! Your pension is released; there are
fifteen thousand francs of arrears you can get on showing that you are
alive. Valerie is dead, and left you three hundred thousand francs.
"Your name is quite forgotten by this time; you may reappear in the
world, and you will find a fortune awaiting you at your son's house.
Come; our happiness will be complete. For nearly three years I have
been seeking you, and I felt so sure of finding you that a room is
ready waiting for you. Oh! come away from this, come away from the
dreadful state I see you in!"
"I am very willing," said the bewildered Baron, "but can I take the
girl?"
"Hector, give her up! Do that much for your Adeline, who has never
before asked you to make the smallest sacrifice. I promise you I will
give the child a marriage portion; I will see that she marries well,
and has some education. Let it be said of one of the women who have
given you happiness that she too is happy; and do not relapse into
vice, into the mire.
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