that you have had
only water to drink; now you will have to do without meat."

They were still cheerful, they could still jest.

"Have you salt, my good girl?"

"Oh, that; yes, monsieur, there is still a little left."

"Well, potatoes and salt are very good when one is hungry."

That night, however, Pascal noticed that Clotilde was feverish; this was
the hour in which they exchanged confidences, and she ventured to tell
him of her anxiety on his account, on her own, on that of the whole
house. What was going to become of them when all their resources should
be exhausted? For a moment she thought of speaking to him of his mother.
But she was afraid, and she contented herself with confessing to him
what she and Martine had done--the old register examined, the bills made
out and sent, the money asked everywhere in vain. In other circumstances
he would have been greatly annoyed and very angry at this confession;
offended that they should have acted without his knowledge, and contrary
to the attitude he had maintained during his whole professional life. He
remained for a long tine silent, strongly agitated, and this would have
sufficed to prove how great must be his secret anguish at times, under
his apparent indifference to poverty. Then he forgave Clotilde, clasping
her wildly to his breast, and finally he said that she had done right,
that they could not continue to live much longer as they were living,
in a destitution which increased every day. Then they fell into silence,
each trying to think of a means of procuring the money necessary for
their daily wants, each suffering keenly; she, desperate at the thought
of the tortures that awaited him; he unable to accustom himself to the
idea of seeing her wanting bread. Was their happiness forever ended,
then? Was poverty going to blight their spring with its chill breath?

At breakfast, on the following day, they ate only fruit. The doctor was
very silent during the morning, a prey to a visible struggle. And it was
not until three o'clock that he took a resolution.

"Come, we must stir ourselves," he said to his companion. "I do not
wish you to fast this evening again; so put on your hat, we will go out
together."

She looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

"Yes, since they owe us money, and have refused to give it to you, I
will see whether they will also refuse to give it to me."

His hands trembled; the thought of demanding payment in this way, after
so m