The old gentleman was often thinking about her nowadays, for he had seen
her in the street giving her arm to her husband, now recovered from his
wounds. The illustrious Lacour had informed him with great satisfaction
of their reconciliation. The engineer had lost but one eye. Now he was
again at the head of his factory requisitioned by the government for the
manufacture of shells. He was a Captain, and was wearing two decorations
of honor. The senator did not know exactly how this unexpected agreement
had come about. He had one day seen them coming home together, looking
affectionately at each other, in complete oblivion of the past.
"Who remembers things that happened before the war," said the politic
sage. "They and their friends have completely forgotten all about their
divorce. Nowadays we are all living a new existence. . . . I believe
that the two are happier than ever before."
Desnoyers had had a presentiment of this happiness when he saw them
together. And the man of inflexible morality who was, the year before,
anathematizing his son's behavior toward Laurier, considering it the
most unpardonable of his adventures, now felt a certain indignation in
seeing Marguerite devoted to her husband, and talking to him with such
affectionate interest. This matrimonial felicity seemed to him like the
basest ingratitude.
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