Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé — Volume 02

At midnight, a shy signal from her mother sets the bride-to-be slipping away from the drawing‑room, hidden beneath a waltz. The hall quiets as servants part, and the open doors to the park reveal a crowd of country folk watching the festivities through windows. The young woman feels countless curious eyes upon her, the mixture of laughter outside and the weight of solemn ceremony inside deepening her unease. The scene balances the sparkle of a wedding with an undercurrent of melancholy.

Her mother, flushed and tear‑streaked, embraces her in the nuptial chamber, a room dressed in Louis XVI elegance and plush tapestries. Between soft kisses and whispered vows, the mother confesses that this will be the last kiss she gives as a child, urging the bride to accept the man she is about to marry. The narrator’s mind flits between fear and imagination, conjuring absurd visions of the groom in nightcaps and bandannas, a testament to her dread. Yet the mother’s gentle insistence and steady affection hint at a complex bond of duty, love, and the inevitable passage into adulthood.