ere; she sank into a state of languor
and debility which steadily increased. Balthazar was now so completely
absorbed in science that neither the reverses which had overtaken
France, nor the first fall of Napoleon, nor the return of the Bourbons,
drew him from his laboratory; he was neither husband, father, nor
citizen,--solely chemist.

Towards the close of 1814 Madame Claes declined so rapidly that she
was no longer able to leave her bed. Unwilling to vegetate in her own
chamber, the scene of so much happiness, where the memory of vanished
joys forced involuntary comparisons with the present and depressed her,
she moved into the parlor. The doctors encouraged this wish by declaring
the room more airy, more cheerful, and therefore better suited to her
condition. The bed in which the unfortunate woman ended her life was
placed between the fireplace and a window looking on the garden. There
she passed her last days, sacredly occupied in training the souls of
her young daughters, striving to leave within them the fire of her own.
Conjugal love, deprived of its manifestations, allowed maternal love
to have its way. The mother now seemed the more delightful because her
motherhood had blossomed late. Like all generous persons, she passed
through sensitive phases of feeling that she mistook for remorse.
Believing that she had defrauded her children of the tenderness that
should have been theirs, she sought to redeem those imaginary wrongs;
bestowing attentions and tender cares which made her precious to them;
she longed to make her children live, as it were, within her heart; to
shelter them beneath her feeble wings; to cherish them enough in the few
remaining days to redeem the time during which she had neglected them.
The sufferings of her mind gave to her words and her caresses a glowing
warmth that issued from her soul. Her eyes caressed her children, her
voice with its yearning intonations touched their hearts, her hand
showered blessings on their heads.

CHAPTER IX

The good people of Douai were not surprised that visitors were no longer
received at the House of Claes, and that Balthazar gave no more fetes on
the anniversary of his marriage. Madame Claes's state of health seemed a
sufficient reason for the change, and the payment of her husband's debts
put a stop to the current gossip; moreover, the political vicissitudes
to which Flanders was subjected, the war of the Hundred-days, and the
occupation of the Al