The
young girl's extreme reserve did not at first discourage suitors;
but at the end of a few years, they tired of their quest.
One alone persisted with tender tenacity and deserved the name of
"eternal fiance," a name he accepted with melancholy resignation;
that was Monsieur Robert Darzac. Mademoiselle Stangerson was now
no longer young, and it seemed that, having found no reason for
marrying at five-and-thirty, she would never find one. But such an
argument evidently found no acceptance with Monsieur Robert Darzac.
He continued to pay his court--if the delicate and tender attention
with which he ceaselessly surrounded this woman of five-and-thirty
could be called courtship--in face of her declared intention never
to marry.
Suddenly, some weeks before the events with which we are occupied,
a report--to which nobody attached any importance, so incredible
did it sound--was spread about Paris, that Mademoiselle Stangerson
had at last consented to "crown" the inextinguishable flame of
Monsieur Robert Darzac! It needed that Monsieur Robert Darzac
himself should not deny this matrimonial rumour to give it an
appearance of truth, so unlikely did it seem to be well founded.
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