242 THE MOTHER OF VICTOR HUGO. and of Adele. He found their house brilliantly lighted and resounding with music and laughter; and he saw Ad£le within, in a ball dress, with flowers in her hair, laughing and dancing. It was her father's birthday, and a ball having been planned by way of celebration, he had been unwilling to deprive his daughter of a pleasure, and had not told her of Madame Hugo's death. The next morning while she was walking in the garden Yictor entered, and his face at once showed her that something sad had happened. " What is the matter ? " she asked, running up to him. "My mother is dead," he answered; "she was buried yesterday." "And I was dancing!" exclaimed Ad&le, bursting into tears. She explained that she had known nothing of the event, which indeed he had already guessed ; and they mourned together for her who had been so devoted a mother to the one, and to whom the other had hoped to give a daughter's care. They always afterward looked upon that sad morning as their betrothal, and when a few days later the formal demand was made for the young lady's hand, she said simply that she considered herself already engaged. A year later they were married — a husband of twenty and a wife of seventeen. The union was productive of nothing but happiness. If she was not a daughter to the mother of her husband, it was her hand who recorded most of the events above related. She was the tSmoin who recounted the story of the early married life of General Hugo and the amorous daughter of La Vendue.*
- Victor Hugo raconte par un Temoin de sa Vie. Paris, 1868.
