"The street is almost empty, madame," he said. "Only a man with a
woman on his arm, stopping and admiring your carriage. They seem
like decent people, as well as I can tell without my spectacles.
Not mob, I should say, madame; certainly not mob!"
"Very well. Attend me downstairs; and bring some loose silver
with you, in case those two decent people should be fit objects
for charity. No orders for the coachman, except that he is to go
straight to the general's house."
The party assembled at General Berthelin's to witness the
signature of the marriage-contract, comprised, besides the
persons immediately interested in the ceremony of the day, some
young ladies, friends of the bride, and a few officers, who had
been comrades of her father's in past years. The guests were
distributed, rather unequally, in two handsome apartments opening
into each other--one called in the house the drawing-room, and
the other the library. In the drawing-room were assembled the
notary, with the contract ready, the bride, the young ladies, and
the majority of General Berthelin's friends. In the library, the
remainder of the military guests were amusing themselves at a
billiard-table until the signing of the contract should take
place, while Danville and his future father-in-law walked up and
down the room together, the first listening absently, the last
talking with all his accustomed energy, and with more than his
accustomed allowance of barrack-room expletives.
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