he will look lovely in that?" she was always asking,
and her mother and the baron smiled at this all-absorbing affection; but
Julien would exclaim, impatiently, "What a nuisance she is with that
brat!" for his habits had been upset and his overweening importance
diminished by the arrival of this noisy, imperious tyrant, and he was
half-jealous of the scrap of humanity who now held the first place in
the house. Jeanne could hardly bear to be away from her baby for an
instant, and she even sat watching him all night through as he lay
sleeping in his cradle. These vigils and this continual anxiety began to
tell upon her health. The want of sleep weakened her and she grew
thinner and thinner, until, at last, the doctor ordered the child to be
separated from her.

It was in vain that she employed tears, commands and entreaties. Each
night the baby slept with his nurse, and each night his mother rose from
her bed and went, barefooted, to put her ear to the keyhole and listen
if he was sleeping quietly. Julien found her there one night as he was
coming in late from dining at the Fourvilles, and after that she was
locked into her room every evening to compel her to stay in bed.

The child was to be named Pierre Simon Paul (they were going to call him
Paul) and at the end of August he was christened, the baron being
godfather, and Aunt Lison godmother. At the beginning of September Aunt
Lison went away, and her absence was as unnoticed as her presence had
been.

One evening, after dinner, the cure called at the chateau. There seemed
an air of mystery about him, and, after a few commonplace remarks, he
asked the baron and baroness if he could speak to them in private for a
few moments. They all three walked slowly down the avenue talking
eagerly as they went, while Julien, feeling uneasy and irritated at this
secrecy, was left behind with Jeanne. He offered to accompany the priest
when he went away, and they walked off towards the church where the
angelus was ringing. It was a cool, almost cold, evening, and the others
soon went into the house. They were all beginning to feel a little
drowsy when the drawing-room door was suddenly thrown open and Julien
came in looking very vexed. Without stopping to see whether Jeanne was
there or not, he cried to the baron, as soon as he entered the room:

"Upon my soul you must be mad to go and give twenty thousand francs to
that girl!"

They were all taken too much by surprise to make a