She knew what he was thinking; she was watching the tension in the far corner of the parlor mount with the same sense of gentle amusement. Two eligible bachelors were vying for the attentions of her daughter, Clémentine, seventeen years old and just home from her convent education in Paris. The one, sitting at Clémentine’s side showing her card tricks, seemed to be winning, but perhaps only for the moment. Barbe-Nicole had already heard him confess that he would have to leave town in the morning and miss the chance to dance with her at some ball or another next week. Probably it was the ball hosted by their neighbor Marie Andrieux that the young man had in mind. Barbe-Nicole knew Marie well and could even say that she was a friend. They had known each other for years. But sometimes it was Marie’s husband, Florent Simon, whose company and talk Barbe-Nicole most enjoyed. A man with political ambitions, he was her father’s deputy mayor. He was also a businessman, and his business was champagne.
