“We lived together for a while at Vez, but there was no room there for the grandmother; and so I said to my husband, ‘the grandmother must be thought of first; I must go back to her; when you wish to see me you will come.’ ”
“And he consented to that arrangement?”
“Not at first, but I pointed out to him that the grandmother is seventy years of age; that if she were only to live another two or three years, God grant it may be more! it would only be two or three years of some extra trouble for us, whereas, in all probability we had long years of life before us. Then he understood that it was right to give to those that had least.”
But all the while that Agnelette was giving this explanation, Thibault could think of nothing but that the love she once had for him was not yet dead.
“So,” said Thibault, “you loved me? and