opened the door to him, and he asked her
anxiously: "Has Madame come in yet?" The servant shrugged her shoulders:
"When have you ever known Madame to come home at half past six,
Monsieur?" And he replied with some embarrassment: "Very well; all the
better; it will give me time to change my things, for I am very hot."

The servant looked at him with angry and contemptuous pity, and
grumbled: "Oh! I can see that well enough, you are covered with
perspiration, Monsieur. I suppose you walked quickly and carried the
child, and only to have to wait until half past seven, perhaps, for
Madame. I have made up my mind not to have it ready at the time. Shall
get it for eight o'clock, and if you have to wait, I cannot help it;
roast meat ought not to be burnt!" Monsieur Parent, however, pretended
not to hear, but only said: "All right! all right. You must wash
George's hands, for he has been making sand pits. I will go and change
my clothes; tell the maid to give the child a good washing."

And he went into his own room, and as soon as he got in he locked the
door, so as to be alone, quite alone. He was so used now to being abused
and badly treated, that he never thought himself safe, except when he
was locked in. He no longer ventured even to think, reflect and reason
with himself, unless he had guarded himself against her looks and
insinuations, by locking himself in. Having thrown himself into a chair,
in order to rest for a few minutes before he put on clean linen, he
remembered that Julie was beginning to be a fresh danger in the house.
She hated his wife, that was quite plain, but she hated his friend Paul
Limousin still more, who had continued to be the familiar and intimate
friend of the house, after having been the inseparable companion of his
bachelor days, which is very rare. It was Limousin who acted as a buffer
between his wife and himself, and who defended him ardently, and even
severely, against her undeserved reproaches, against crying scenes, and
against all the daily miseries of his existence.

But now for six months, Julie had constantly been saying things against
her mistress, and repeated twenty times a day: "If I were you, Monsieur,
I should not allow myself to be led by the nose like that. Well, well...
There, ... everyone according to his nature." And one day, she had even
ventured to be insolent to Henriette, who, however, merely said to her
husband, at night: "You know, the next time she speaks to me like