ger, who seemed to be threatening his mother, George
sprang up, ready to seize him by the collar. Limousin, thunderstruck,
looked in horror at this apparition, who, after gasping for breath,
continued:

"So now we will have an explanation; the proper moment has come! Ah! you
deceived me, you condemned me to the life of a convict, and you thought
that I should never catch you!"

The young man took him by the shoulders and pushed him back.

"Are you mad?" he asked. "What do you want? Go on your way immediately,
or I shall give you a thrashing!"

"What do I want?" replied Parent. "I want to tell you who these people
are."

George, however, was in a rage, and shook him; and was even going to
strike him.

"Let me go," said Parent. "I am your father. There, see whether they
recognize me now, the wretches!"

The young man, thunderstruck, unclenched his fists and turned toward his
mother. Parent, as soon as he was released, approached her.

"Well," he said, "tell him yourself who I am! Tell him that my name is
Henri Parent, that I am his father because his name is George Parent,
because you are my wife, because you are all three living on my money,
on the allowance of ten thousand francs which I have made you since I
drove you out of my house. Will you tell him also why I drove you out?
Because I surprised you with this beggar, this wretch, your lover! Tell
him what I was, an honorable man, whom you married for money, and whom
you deceived from the very first day. Tell him who you are, and who I
am----"

He stammered and gasped for breath in his rage. The woman exclaimed in a
heartrending voice:

"Paul, Paul, stop him; make him be quiet! Do not let him say this before
my son!"

Limousin had also risen to his feet. He said in a very low voice: "Hold
your tongue! Hold your tongue! Do you understand what you are doing?"

"I quite know what I am doing," resumed Parent, "and that is not all.
There is one thing that I will know, something that has tormented me for
twenty years." Then, turning to George, who was leaning against a tree
in consternation, he said:

"Listen to me. When she left my house she thought it was not enough to
have deceived me, but she also wanted to drive me to despair. You were
my only consolation, and she took you with her, swearing that I was not
your father, but, that he was your father. Was she lying? I do not know.
I have been asking myself the question for the last twenty years." He
went