Heart Specialist Read Online Free PDF Page B

that suited him for one that probably wouldn ’ t. She could imagine him being, above all things, in complete control of his head, whatever his heart might dictate on occasion.
    She had decided, on the whole, Frenchmen were rather like that. They were brought up to assess value, rather than to be dazzled by appearances and soft beguiling ways. That was why they took so naturally to marriages of convenience. They were like sensible shoppers who always paused to ask the price and to be quite sure about it before committing themselves to buying anything. And afterward, when they were married, their wives developed the same characteristics and became the most wonderful bargainers for goods for their households, never being stuck with the inferior article, or succumbing to the weakness of purchasing something expensive just because it was expensive!
    Even Miss Constantia, lover of France, its ways and everything about it, had admitted that. Frenchmen were the most exacting husbands, although the emotional demands they made of their wives quickly lessened to more suitable proportions. After all, marriage was not an emotional affair—emotion was often outside the home! And wives didn ’ t object because the running of a home and the bringing up of a family really was fun to them.
    Valentine had seen them in the market going through the lettuces and examining the fruit. She had been faintly horrified by the earnestness they brought to their shopping expeditions.
    The wife of Dr. Daudet, if he ever possessed one, would never be expected to examine lettuces or fruit, but she would have to give value if she ever became a part of his life.
    Thinking these things, Valentine wandered on in the sunshine, and she was glad that she had not taken a taxi. She had just spent a full hour with Maitre Dubonnet in his office. Maitre Dubonnet was a very charming Frenchman, and whether his charm was all on the surface she didn ’ t know, but he had been very kind and understanding from the moment he called to visit her in the apartment earlier that week. He plainly didn ’ t think she had done anything to influence Miss Constantia, or get her to alter her will in her favor within a few weeks of being taken on as her secretary-companion; on the contrary, he had assured her that Miss Constantia had confessed to a great attachment to her young employee.
    Miss Constantia was not the sort of elderly person who formed violent attachments, and he had every reason to believe that her reasons for altering her will had been perfectly sound and logical according to her views. It was not unnatural that she should remember her doctor so generously, for she had admired him for years, and their brief acquaintance had obviously taught her to admire Valentine as well. Maitre Dubonnet, with the gallantry of all Frenchmen, had expressed his own opinion that the legacy would not pass out of Valentine ’ s possession at the end of a year, for it was quite certain she would marry. To him there could be no shrinking from marriage when an extremely comfortable income was involved, to say nothing of a house whose contents alone were worth many more thousands of pounds in English money, and millions of French francs. He laughed outright when Valentine said that one didn ’ t just pick up a husband in the same manner that one picked up a new piece of furniture for the home, or even a new outfit of clothes.
    “ My dear Miss Brooke, ” he said at parting, “ you will find husbands, or prospective husbands, shall we say, lurking under every gooseberry bush— ” this would have amused her extremely under ordinary circumstances “ —from now on, and it will only be a matter of selecting the one you find the most pleasing to yourself. You are a young woman whose future is very well endowed, and you are—if I may say so—utterly enchanting! You may call me at any time if there is any advice I can offer you! ”
    But as she wandered beneath the colonnades of the rue de