ny answer, and he went
on, too angry to speak distinctly: "I can't understand how you can be
such fools! But there I suppose you will keep on till we haven't a sou
left!"

The baron, recovering himself, a little, tried to check his son-in-law:

"Be quiet!" he exclaimed. "Don't you see that your wife is in the room?"

"I don't care if she is," answered Julien, stamping his foot. "Besides,
she ought to know about it. It is depriving her of her rightful
inheritance."

Jeanne had listened to her husband in amazement, utterly at a loss to
know what it was all about:

"Whatever is the matter?" she asked.

Then Julien turned to her, expecting her to side with him, as the loss
of the money would affect her also. He told her in a few words how her
parents were trying to arrange a marriage for Rosalie, and how the
maid's child was to have the farm at Barville, which was worth twenty
thousand francs at the very least. And he kept on repeating:

"Your parents must be mad, my dear, raving mad! Twenty thousand francs!
Twenty thousand francs! They can't be in their right senses! Twenty
thousand francs for a bastard!"

Jeanne listened to him quite calmly, astonished herself to find that she
felt neither anger nor sorrow at his meanness, but she was perfectly
indifferent now to everything which did not concern her child. The baron
was choking with anger, and at last he burst out, with a stamp of the
foot:

"Really, this is too much! Whose fault is it that this girl has to have
a dowry? You seem to forget who is her child's father; but, no doubt,
you would abandon her altogether if you had your way!"

Julien gazed at the baron for a few moments in silent surprise. Then he
went on more quietly:

"But fifteen hundred francs would have been ample to give her. All the
peasant-girls about here have children before they marry, so what does
it matter who they have them by? And then, setting aside the injustice
you will be doing Jeanne and me, you forget that if you give Rosalie a
farm worth twenty thousand francs everybody will see at once that there
must be a reason for such a gift. You should think a little of what is
due to our name and position."

He spoke in a calm, cool way as if he were sure of his logic and the
strength of his argument. The baron, disconcerted by this fresh view of
the matter, could find nothing to say in reply, and Julien, feeling his
advantage, added:

"But fortunately, nothing is settled. I know the