Her father, in accepting the young man, had merely had eyes for the fifty thousand francs which were to save him from bankruptcy.

Felicite, however, was more keen-sighted.
She looked into the future, and felt that she would be in want of a robust man, even if he were somewhat rustic, behind whom she might conceal herself, and whose limbs she would move at will.

She entertained a deliberate hatred for the insignificant little exquisites of provincial towns, the lean herd of notaries' clerks and prospective barristers, who stand shivering with cold while waiting for clients.
Having no dowry, and despairing of ever marrying a rich merchant's son, she by far preferred a peasant whom she could use as a passive tool, to some lank graduate who would overwhelm her with his academical superiority, and drag her about all her life in search of hollow vanities.

She was of opinion that the woman ought to make the man.

She believed herself capable of carving a minister out of a cow-herd.