f. The consciousness of his abasement, and
the isolation of his life in the pursuit of science made him timid and
childish in all matters not connected with his favorite occupations. His
daughter awed him; the remembrance of her past devotion, of the energy
she had displayed, of the powers he had allowed her to take away from
him, of the wealth now at her command, and the indefinable feelings that
had preyed upon him ever since the day when he had abdicated a paternity
he had long neglected,--all these things affected his mind towards her,
and increased her importance in his eyes. Conyncks was nothing to him
beside Marguerite; he saw only his daughter, he thought only of her, and
seemed to fear her, as certain weak husbands fear a superior woman
who rules them. When he raised his eyes and looked at her, Marguerite
noticed with distress an expression of fear, like that of a child
detected in a fault. The noble girl was unable to reconcile the majestic
and terrible expression of that bald head, denuded by science and by
toil, with the puerile smile, the eager servility exhibited on the lips
and countenance of the old man. She suffered from the contrast of that
greatness to that littleness, and resolved to use her utmost influence
to restore her father's sense of dignity before the solemn day on which
he was to reappear in the bosom of his family. Her first step when they
were alone was to ask him,--

"Do you owe anything here?"

Balthazar colored, and replied with an embarrassed air:--

"I don't know, but Lemulquinier can tell you. That worthy fellow knows
more about my affairs than I do myself."

Marguerite rang for the valet: when he came she studied, almost
involuntarily, the faces of the two old men.

"What does monsieur want?" asked Lemulquinier.

Marguerite, who was all pride and dignity, felt an oppression at her
heart as she perceived from the tone and manner of the servant that some
mortifying familiarity had grown up between her father and the companion
of his labors.

"My father cannot make out the account of what he owes in this place
without you," she said.

"Monsieur," began Lemulquinier, "owes--"

At these words Balthazar made a sign to his valet which Marguerite
intercepted; it humiliated her.

"Tell me all that my father owes," she said.

"Monsieur owes, here, about three thousand francs to an apothecary who
is a wholesale dealer in drugs; he has supplied us with pearl-ash and
lead, and zinc