little mischievous exclamations which
issued from between her white teeth, and hurt Parent as much as a bite
would have done: "Ha!... ha!... ha!... ha! she beat ... she beat ... my
husband ... ha!... ha! ha!... How funny!... Do you hear, Limousin? Julie
has beaten ... has beaten ... my ... husband ... Oh! dear oh! dear ...
how very funny!"

But Parent protested: "No ... no ... it is not true, it is not true ...
It was I, on the contrary, who threw her into the dining room so
violently that she knocked the table over. The child did not see
clearly, I beat her!" "Here, my darling." Henriette said to her boy "did
Julie beat papa?" "Yes, it was Julie," he replied. But then, suddenly
turning to another idea, she said, "But the child has had no dinner?
You have had nothing to eat, my pet?" "No, mamma." Then she again turned
furiously onto her husband. "Why, you must be mad, utterly mad! It is
half past eight, and George has had no dinner!"

He excused himself as best he could, for he had nearly lost his wits by
the overwhelming scene and the explanation, and felt crushed by this
ruin of his life. "But, my dear, we were waiting for you, as I did not
wish to dine without you. As you come home late every day, I expected
you every moment."

She threw her bonnet, which she had kept on till then, into an easy
chair, and in an angry voice she said: "It is really intolerable to have
to do with people who can understand nothing, who can divine nothing,
and do nothing by themselves. So, I suppose, if I were to come in at
twelve o'clock at night, the child would have had nothing to eat? Just
as if you could not have understood that, as it was after half past
seven, I was prevented from coming home, that I had met with some
hindrance!..."

Parent trembled, for he felt that his anger was getting the upper hand,
but Limousin interposed and turning towards the young woman, he said:
"My dear friend, you are altogether unjust. Parent could not guess that
you would come here so late, as you never do so, and then, how would you
expect him to get over the difficulty all by himself, after having sent
away Julie?"

But Henriette was very angry and replied "Well, at any rate, he must
get over the difficulty himself, for I will not help him. Let him settle
it". And she went into her own room, quite forgetting that her child had
not had anything to eat.

Then Limousin immediately set to work to help his friend. He picked up
the broken glass