"Can it be possible you should have made this distinction between me and the others?"
"Certainly, I have made it, otherwise I should have a bad heart. Yes, I said to myself, 'No one can be better than M. Germain; only he is a little too serious; but never mind, if I had a friend who wished to marry to be very, very happy, certainly I should advise her to marry M. Germain; for he would be the idol of a nice little housekeeper.'"
"You thought of me for another!" Germain could not prevent himself from saying mournfully.
"It is true; I should have been delighted to see you make a happy marriage, since I loved you as a valued friend. You see I am frank; I tell you everything."
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart; it is a consolation for me to learn that among your friends I was he whom you preferred."
"This was the situation of things when your troubles came. It was then that I received the good and kind letter in which you informed me of what you called your fault; fault! which I think--who am not a scholar--is a good and praiseworthy action; it was then that you asked me to go for those papers which informed me that you had always loved me, without daring to tell me so. Those papers, in which I read"--and Rigolette could not restrain her tears--"that, thinking of my future, which sickness, or the want of work might render so painful, you left me, if you should die a violent death, as you feared--you left me the little which you had acquired: by force of industry and economy--"
"Yes; for if I were alive and you found yourself without work or sick, it is to me, rather than any one else, that you would address yourself--is it not so? I count on it! speak! speak! I am not mistaken, am I?"
"It is very plain; to whom would you have me apply?"
"Oh! hold; these are words which do good, which are a balm for many sorrows!"
"I cannot express to you what I felt on reading--what a sad word--this _will_, of which each line contained a 'souvenir' of me, or a thought for my welfare; and yet I was not to know these proofs of your attachment until you were no longer in existence. Bless me! what would you? after such generous conduct one is astonished that love should come all at once! yet it is very natural, is it not, M. Germain?"