"What use?"

"That is an inviolable secret," she answered. "Have you no secrets?"

"I am the head of the family; I have my own affairs."

"And this is mine."

"It must be something bad if you can't tell it to your father,
Mademoiselle Grandet."

"It is good, and I cannot tell it to my father."

"At least you can tell me when you parted with your gold?"

Eugenie made a negative motion with her head.

"You had it on your birthday, hein?"

She grew as crafty through love as her father was through avarice, and
reiterated the negative sign.

"Was there ever such obstinacy! It's a theft," cried Grandet, his voice
going up in a crescendo which gradually echoed through the house.
"What! here, in my own home, under my very eyes, somebody has taken your
gold!--the only gold we have!--and I'm not to know who has got it! Gold
is a precious thing. Virtuous girls go wrong sometimes, and give--I
don't know what; they do it among the great people, and even among the
bourgeoisie. But give their gold!--for you have given it to some one,
hein?--"

Eugenie was silent and impassive.

"Was there ever such a daughter? Is it possible that I am your father?
If you have invested it anywhere, you must have a receipt--"

"Was I free--yes or no--to do what I would with my own? Was it not
mine?"

"You are a child."

"Of age."

Dumbfounded by his daughter's logic, Grandet turned pale and stamped and
swore. When at last he found words, he cried: "Serpent! Cursed girl! Ah,
deceitful creature! You know I love you, and you take advantage of it.
She'd cut her father's throat! Good God! you've given our fortune to
that ne'er-do-well,--that dandy with morocco boots! By the shears of my
father! I can't disinherit you, but I curse you,--you and your cousin
and your children! Nothing good will come of it! Do you hear? If it was
to Charles--but, no; it's impossible. What! has that wretched fellow
robbed me?--"

He looked at his daughter, who continued cold and silent.

"She won't stir; she won't flinch! She's more Grandet than I'm Grandet!
Ha! you have not given your gold for nothing? Come, speak the truth!"

Eugenie looked at her father with a sarcastic expression that stung him.

"Eugenie, you are here, in my house,--in your father's house. If you
wish to stay here, you must submit yourself to me. The priests tell you
to obey me." Eugenie bowed her head. "You affront me in all I hold most
dear. I will not see you again until you subm