Chapter XXII: Conclusion

After Roncherolle's death, Monsieur de Brevanne took Violette into his family and treated her as his daughter. He provided different masters for both Violette and Georget, who completed their education.

Study, Georget's love, and the count's affection, gradually changed Violette's grief into a melancholy souvenir. Sometimes she said to Monsieur de Brevanne:

"So you don't want me to sell flowers any more, monsieur?"

"No, my child," the count said with a smile. "You shall have flowers, you shall raise them, and pick as many as you please; but you no longer need to sell them, for I am wealthy, and when your mourning is at an end, I propose to marry you to Georget and share my fortune with you."

A few weeks after Roncherolle's death, of which the count informed Monsieur de Merval, the latter met Madame de Grangeville on the street, and she eagerly accosted him.

"At last I meet you, my sincere, my generous friend, and I am able to express my gratitude for what you are doing for me. No more mystery, my dear Merval, I know all; I recognized your handwriting; indeed, what other than yourself would have acted so delicately toward me? But I assure you that as to the little flower girl, you are mistaken, you are entirely wrong; it was simply some resemblance of feature which led you to think that."

Monsieur de Merval listened without interrupting, and when she had finished, he said to her in a very grave tone:

"Madame, it is time that you should be disabused concerning the error under which you are laboring. I am not entitled to your thanks, the money which you receive from an unknown hand is not sent to you by me, I tell you again; but I have a shrewd suspicion from whom it does come."

"Who is it, pray? For heaven's sake, give me the name of that generous friend."

"The Comte de Brevanne, madame."

Madame de Grangeville made a slight grimace and shut her lips together in annoyance, muttering:

"My husband! what an idea! how on earth could he have learned that I was in straitened circumstances?"

"It was I who told him, madame, after I had the honor to pay you a visit; I did not think that I did wrong in informing Monsieur de Brevanne that your situation was not--was not prosperous."

"I did not give you that commission, monsieur.--But in that case--the flower girl----"

"It was he who sent her also, madame."

"Really, monsieur, I utterly failed to understand the romance that that girl told me. Someone has believed, or imagined, things which are utterly absurd."

"It seems, madame, that Monsieur de Roncherolle understood better than you did, for he did not fail to acknowledge that young flower girl as his daughter."

"His daughter! Monsieur de Roncherolle acknowledged her as his daughter?"

"Yes, madame, before he died."

"What! Roncherolle is dead?"

"He is dead, madame, and he died asking forgiveness of the friend whom he had so deeply injured."

"Ah! poor Roncherolle! So he is dead! Well, after all, he was wise, for he was in a pitiable plight. And--and--the little flower girl?"

"She is living with the Comte de Brevanne, madame. He has adopted her, and _he_ will never abandon her! Ah! there are few men like the count, and you should be very proud, madame, that you once bore his name!"

Madame de Grangeville could not repress a gesture of annoyance; but she restrained herself, bowed coldly to Monsieur de Merval and hurriedly left him.

Toward the close of the Carnival, which came shortly after, Madame de Grangeville, as the result of wearing a much too decollete costume at a ball, was seized with inflammation of the lungs; and a week after taking to her bed, she realized that she would never leave it again.

Thereupon a maternal sentiment sprang up in that woman's heart for the first time; for thus far she had lived solely for herself. Hastily writing a few words in a trembling hand, she begged the count to be kind enough to send her daughter to her, as she would like to embrace her before she breathed her last.

But the count said to his wife's messenger:

"When a person has twice spurned her child, she must not hope that that child will close her eyes. It is too late now for Violette to know her mother."

A few days after Madame de Grangeville's death, the Comte de Brevanne resumed his name and his title, and there was an end of Monsieur Malberg.

The Glumeau family continues to give private theatricals in its little wood, but Chambourdin is not allowed to seat ladies on the branches of trees.

Little Saint-Arthur, having squandered his last sou with Mademoiselle Zizi Dutaillis, considered himself too fortunate to have found another place as clerk in a dry-goods shop, where he has resumed his own name and has become Benoit Canard as before. But the young actress is a good-hearted girl; she still allows her former friend to come to see her sometimes, and on those occasions it is she who invites him to breakfast.

As for Chicotin, he insists upon remaining a messenger. Witnessing the happiness of Georget and Violette, he says to himself:

"They owe it partly to me; but I am perfectly sure that if I were in hard luck they would give me a share of their good fortune."

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Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

as he re-replied=> as he replied {pg 17}

The concierge went dowstairs=> The concierge went downstairs {pg 188}

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