"What am I to do?" cried Geraldine. "See, my dear cousin, how he loved me! How can I marry you when my heart is given to another?"
"You were going to do so, but for a shower of rain," said Edouard, with a vain attempt at gravity. "But take her, M. Alfred: I think after all I'm lucky to have escaped her! I don't forgive you a bit, because it's hard to find out that when at last one thinks one's self loved, the lady was only pretending."
"You do forgive me!" exclaimed Geraldine, shaking her head, and putting his hand into that of Alfred, who shook it warmly.
"Yes, yes!--of course you're pleased! But I must marry now. I shall ask Hélène at Bordeaux to have me, as nobody there will know any thing about my present mishap."
At this moment M. and Mme Delisle returned; their astonishment was of course very great. Edouard gravely introduced the young couple.
"You see, madame," he said, "that while you were walking round the garden, I have managed to lose my wife, and you to find a son-in-law."
"But, my Geraldine," exclaimed her mother, "are you not behaving very badly to Edouard?"
"Not at all!" said the young man: "I could not think of marrying her. Look at her! Five minutes with Alfred has done her more good than all her excursions in search of roses!"
"Mischievous man to betray me!" said Geraldine in her turn, warmly shaking his hand.
"But what will the world say?" exclaimed M. Delisle.
"I will tell the truth," said Alfred; and in a few words he explained the cause of the refusal of Geraldine to have him.
It was now settled that the day should be spent at the villa; that in the evening they should return to Paris, without the count, who was to present himself only next day. He agreed to own frankly to all his friends the depth and sincerity of his affection, while Edouard good-naturedly volunteered to tell every one that he had been turned off--a promise which he gravely kept, relating his discomfiture in a way that drew tears of laughter from all his hearers.
And Geraldine and Alfred were married, to the surprise of the world. They were both cured of their former errors, and I know no instance of a happier marriage than that of M. and Mme de Rougement. He is now a member of the Legislative Assembly, and is remarked for the liberality of his opinions--being one of the many ex-legitimists who have gone over to the moderate republican party. Edouard married his country cousin. Both young couples have children, and both are happy: the only revenge the young man having taken is to persevere on all occasions, even before his own wife, in calling Geraldine "The Stolen Rose."