doctor; unfortunately he is absent; he will not be back for two days."

At this moment a voice which seemed to Godefroid to have, and really
had, a fresh, melodious ring, cried out, "Papa, papa!" on two expressive
notes.

While speaking to the old man, Godefroid had noticed that the jambs of
a door leading to another room were painted in a delicate manner,
altogether different from that of the rest of the lodging. His
curiosity, already so keenly excited, was now roused to the highest
pitch. He was conscious that his mission of benevolence was becoming
nothing more than a pretext; what he really wanted was to see that sick
woman. He refused to believe for an instant that a creature endowed with
such a voice could be an object of repulsion.

"You do, indeed, take too much trouble, papa!" said the voice. "Why not
have more servants?--and at your age, too! Good God!"

"But you know, my dear Vanda, that the boy and I cannot bear that any
one should wait upon you but ourselves!"

Those sentences, which Godefroid heard through the door, or rather
divined, for a heavy portiere on the inside smothered the sounds, gave
him an inkling of the truth. The sick woman, surrounded by luxury, was
evidently kept in ignorance of the real situation of her father and
son. The violet silk dressing-gown of Monsieur Bernard, the flowers,
his remarks to Cartier, had already roused some suspicion of this in
Godefroid's mind. The young man stood still where he was, bewildered
by this prodigy of paternal love. The contrast, such as he imagined it,
between the invalid's room and the rest of that squalid place,--yes, it
was bewildering!

XIV. HOW THE POOR AND HELPLESS ARE PREYED UPON

Through the door of a third chamber, which the old man had left open,
Godefroid beheld two cots of painted wood, like those of the cheapest
boarding-schools, each with a straw bed and a thin mattress, on which
there was but one blanket. A small iron stove like those that porters
cook by, near which lay a few squares of peat, would alone have shown
the poverty of the household without the help of other details.

Advancing a step or two, Godefroid saw utensils such as the poorest
persons use,--earthenware jugs, and pans in which potatoes floated
in dirty water. Two tables of blackened wood, covered with books and
papers, stood before the windows that looked out upon the rue Notre-Dame
des Champs, and indicated the nocturnal occupations of father and son.