ot be of any value. She had merely
braved him, and tried to drive him to desperation, and calmly weighing
the _pros_ and _cons_, there seemed to be every chance that she had
lied, though perhaps only Limousin could tell the truth. But how was he
to find it out, how could he question him or persuade him to confess the
real facts?

Sometimes Parent would get up in the middle of the night, fully
determined to go and see Limousin and to beg him, to offer him anything
he wanted, to put an end to this intolerable misery. Then he went back
to bed in despair, reflecting that her lover would also lie, no doubt!
He would be even sure to lie, in order to prevent him from taking away
the child, if he were really his father. What could he do, then?
Absolutely nothing!

And he was sorry that he had thus suddenly brought about the crisis,
that he had not taken time for reflection, that he had not waited and
dissimulated for a month or two, so as to find out for himself. He ought
to have pretended to suspect nothing, and have allowed them to betray
themselves at their leisure. It would have been enough for him, to see
the other kiss the child, to guess and to understand. A friend does not
kiss a child as a father does. He should have watched them behind the
doors. Why had he not thought of that? If Limousin, when left alone with
George, had not at once taken him up, clasped him in his arms and kissed
him passionately; if he had looked on indifferently while he was
playing, without taking any notice of him, no doubt or hesitation could
have been possible; in that case he would not have been the father, he
would not have thought that he was, would not have felt that he was.
Thus Parent would have kept the child, while he got rid of the mother,
and he would have been happy, perfectly happy.

He tossed about in bed, hot and unhappy, trying to recollect Limousin's
ways with the child. But he could not remember anything suspicious, not
a gesture, not a look, neither word nor caress. And the child's mother
took very little notice of him, and if she had had him by her lover, she
would, no doubt, have loved him more.

They had, therefore, separated him from his son, from vengeance, from
cruelty, to punish him for having surprised them, and he made up his
mind to go the next morning and obtain the magistrate's assistance to
gain possession of George, but almost as soon as he had formed that
resolution, he felt assured of the contrary. From t