Valentine Visits Her Grieving Grandmother
Valentine Visits Her Grieving Grandmother Valentine finds her grandmother in bed, and the interview is marked only by silent caresses, heart-wrung sobs, broken sighs, and burning tears. Madame de Villefort withdraws at her husband’s side, suggesting her presence only deepens her mother-in-law’s grief, to which the marchioness agrees and asks Valentine to stay. The procureur, overcome with astonishment at the death, follows his wife, while the exhausted marchioness eventually yields to a feverish sleep. A small table with orangeade, her usual beverage, is placed within reach.
Noirtier Requests a Visit from Valentine
Noirtier Requests a Visit from Valentine On her way from Madame de Saint-Méran, Valentine ascends to Noirtier. The old man greets her with such tenderness that her tears, which he had thought exhausted, flow afresh. He gazes at her with unwavering love, and she reassures him that she still has a kind grandfather, without whom she scarcely knows what would become of her. Though Barrois urges rest at one in the morning, Noirtier wishes her goodnight, grieved by her pallor.
Madame de Saint-Méran Demands a Hastened Marriage
Madame de Saint-Méran Demands a Hastened Marriage The next morning, Valentine finds her grandmother’s fever unabated, her eyes glistening with violent nervous agitation. The marchioness has been waiting to speak with Villefort, whom she summons without preamble. She demands that Valentine’s marriage to Franz d’Épinay—son of a general assassinated before Napoleon’s return, and one who may not relish wedding a Jacobin’s granddaughter—be hastened, for she has but a short time to live and wishes a grandmother, not a stepmother, to bless the union. Dismissing Valentine’s objections about decorum and the recent death, the marchioness insists that she was herself married at her mother’s deathbed without suffering for it, and declares she must see her future son-in-law, read his intentions in his eyes, and know him well enough to rise from her grave should he fail in his duty.
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