"I saw--"

"He recognized the phrase."

"True. I remember--"

"Ah! but you did not say that phrase only--you said all the others. But
that is nothing as yet, Aunt Louise. Do you know what was his principal
objection to a marriage with me? Do you know what he told Robert? That
he had seen me in evening-dress the night before for the first time, and
that I was too thin! Too thin! Ah! that was a cruel blow to me! For it
was true. I was thin. The evening after Gabrielle had told me that awful
fact, that evening in undressing I looked at my poor little shoulders,
with their poor little salt-cellars, and I had a terrible spasm of
sorrow--a flood of tears that wouldn't stop--a torrent, a real torrent;
and then mamma appeared. I was alone, disrobed, hair flying, studying my
shoulders, deploring their meagreness--a true picture of despair! Mamma
took me in her arms. 'My angel, my poor dear, what is the matter?' I
answered only by sobbing. 'My child, tell me all.' Mamma was very
anxious, but I could not speak; tears choked my voice. 'My dearest, do
you wish to kill me?' So to reassure mamma I managed to say between my
sobs: 'I am too thin, mamma; last night Gontran thought me too thin!' At
that mamma began to laugh heartily; but as she was good-humored that
evening, after laughing she explained to me that she, at seventeen, had
been much thinner than I, and she promised me in the most solemn manner
that I should grow stouter. Mamma spoke true; I have fattened up. Will
you have the goodness, sir, to declare to our aunt that the salt-cellars
have entirely disappeared, and that you cannot have against me, in that
respect, any legitimate cause of complaint?"