ddenly
escape, leave her abruptly, or drop into the gulf of meditation from
which no word of hers could drag him.

Before long the reaction of the moral upon the physical condition began
its ravages,--at first imperceptibly, except to the eyes of a loving
woman following the secret thought of a husband through all its
manifestations. Often she could scarcely restrain her tears when she saw
him, after dinner, sink into an armchair by the corner of the fireplace,
and remain there, gloomy and abstracted. She noted with terror the slow
changes which deteriorated that face, once, to her eyes, sublime
through love: the life of the soul was retreating from it; the structure
remained, but the spirit was gone. Sometimes the eyes were glassy, and
seemed as if they had turned their gaze and were looking inward. When
the children had gone to bed, and the silence and solitude oppressed
her, Pepita would say, "My friend, are you ill?" and Balthazar would
make no answer; or if he answered, he would come to himself with a
quiver, like a man snatched suddenly from sleep, and utter a "No" so
harsh and grating that it fell like a stone on the palpitating heart of
his wife.

Though she tried to hide this strange state of things from her friends,
Madame Claes was obliged sometimes to allude to it. The social world
of Douai, in accordance with the custom of provincial towns, had made
Balthazar's aberrations a topic of conversation, and many persons
were aware of certain details that were still unknown to Madame Claes.
Disregarding the reticence which politeness demanded, a few friends
expressed to her so much anxiety on the subject that she found herself
compelled to defend her husband's peculiarities.

"Monsieur Claes," she said, "has undertaken a work which wholly absorbs
him; its success will eventually redound not only to the honor of the
family but to that of his country."

This mysterious explanation was too flattering to the ambition of a
town whose local patriotism and desire for glory exceed those of other
places, not to be readily accepted, and it produced on all minds a
reaction in favor of Balthazar.

The supposition of his wife was, to a certain extent, well-founded.
Several artificers of various trades had long been at work in the garret
of the front house, where Balthazar went early every morning. After
remaining, at first, for several hours, an absence to which his wife and
household grew gradually accustomed, he ended