n
the same as here, poor father will be ruined. And he counted so much on
those flowers, he needs the money so badly."

I had heard that the glass frames cost as much as 1800 francs a hundred,
and I knew what a disaster it would be if the hail broke our five or six
hundred, without counting the plants and the conservatories. I would
liked to have questioned Etiennette, but we could scarcely hear each
other speak, and she did not seem disposed to talk. She looked at the
hail falling with a hopeless expression, like a person would look upon
his house burning.

The hurricane lasted but a short while; it stopped as suddenly as it had
commenced. It lasted perhaps six minutes. The clouds swept over Paris
and we were able to leave our shelter. The hailstones were thick on the
ground. Lise could not walk in them in her thin shoes, so I took her on
my back and carried her. Her pretty face, which was so bright when going
to the party, was now grief-stricken and the tears rolled down her
cheeks.

Before long we reached the house. The big gates were open and we went
quickly into the garden. What a sight met our eyes! All the glass frames
were smashed to atoms. Flowers, pieces of glass and hailstones were all
heaped together in our once beautiful garden. Everything was shattered!

Where was the father?

We searched for him. Last of all we found him in the big conservatory,
of which every pane of glass was broken. He was seated on a wheelbarrow
in the midst of the debris which covered the ground. Alexix and Benjamin
stood beside him silently.

"My children, my poor little ones!" he cried, when we all were there.

He took Lise in his arms and began to sob. He said nothing more. What
could he have said? It was a terrible catastrophe, but the consequences
were still more terrible. I soon learned this from Etiennette.

Ten years ago their father had bought the garden and had built the house
himself. The man who had sold him the ground had also lent him the money
to buy the necessary materials required by a florist. The amount was
payable in yearly payments for fifteen years. The man was only waiting
for an occasion when the florist would be late in payment to take back
the ground, house, material; keeping, of course, the ten-year payments
that he had already received.

This was a speculation on the man's part, for he had hoped that before
the fifteen years expired there would come a day when the florist would
be unable to meet