ents, continued: "So now we will have an
explanation; the proper moment for it has come! Ah! you deceived me, you
condemned me to the life of a convict, and you thought that I should
never catch you!"

But the young man took him by the shoulders and pushed him back: "Are
you mad?" he asked. "What do you want? Go on your way immediately, or I
shall give you a thrashing!" But Parent replied: "What do I want? I want
to tell you who these people are." George, however, was in a rage and
shook him; was even going to strike him, but the other said: "Just let
me go. I am your father ... There, look whether they recognize me now,
the wretches!" And the alarmed young man, removed his hands, and turned
to his mother, while Parent, as soon as he was released, went towards
her.

"Well," he said, "tell him who I am, you! Tell him that my name is Henri
Parent, that I am his father because his name is George Parent, because
you are my wife, because you are all three living on my money, on the
allowance of ten thousand francs which I have made you, since I drove
you out of my house. Will you tell him also why I drove you out? Because
I surprised you with this beggar, this wretch, your lover! Tell him what
I was, an honorable man, whom you married for my money, and whom you
deceived from the very first day. Tell him who you are, and who I
am ..."

He stammered and panted for breath, in his rage, and the woman exclaimed
in a heartrending voice: "Paul, Paul, stop him; make him be quiet; do
not let him say this before my son!" Limousin had also got up, and he
said in a quite low voice: "Hold your tongue! Hold your tongue! Do
understand what you are doing!" But Parent continued furiously: "I quite
know what I am doing, and that is not all. There is one thing that I
will know, something that has tormented me for twenty years." And then
turning to George, who was leaning against a tree in consternation, he
said: "Listen to me. When she left my house, she thought it was not
enough to have deceived me, but she also wanted to drive me to despair.
You were my only consolation, and she took you with her, swearing that
I was not your father, but that he was your father! Was she lying? I do
not know, and I have been asking myself the question for the last twenty
years."

He went close up to her, tragic and terrible, and pulling away her hands
with which she had covered her face, he continued: "Well, I call upon
you now to tell me which of us two