ly about the head and chest. A fortnight later he died,
apparently calm, but in reality a prey to bitter regrets. It was a
terrible blow for his poor wife, and the thought of her son alone
reconciled her to life. Pascal was now everything to her--her present
and her future; and she solemnly vowed that she would make a noble man
of him. But alas! misfortunes never come singly. One of her husband's
friends, who acted as administrator to the estate, took a contemptible
advantage of her inexperience. She went to sleep one night possessing
an income of fifteen thousand francs, but she awoke to find herself
ruined--so completely ruined that she did not know where to obtain her
dinner for that same evening. Had she been alone in the world, she would
not have grieved much over the catastrophe, but she was sadly affected
by the thought that her son's future was, perhaps, irrevocably blighted,
and that, in any case, this disaster would condemn him to enter life
through the cramped and gloomy portals of poverty.

However, Madame Ferailleur was of too courageous and too proud a nature
not to meet this danger with virile energy. She wasted no time in
useless lamentations. She determined to repair the harm as far as it
was in her power to repair it, resolving that her son's studies at the
college of Louis-the-Great should not be interrupted, even if she had to
labor with her own hands. And when she spoke of manual toil, it was
no wild, unmeaning exaggeration born of sorrow and a passing flash of
courage. She found employment as a day-servant and in sewing for
large shops, until she at last obtained a situation as clerk in the
establishment where her husband had been a partner. To obtain this she
was obliged to acquire a knowledge of bookkeeping, but she was amply
repaid for her trouble; for the situation was worth eighteen hundred
francs a year, besides food and lodging. Then only did her efforts
momentarily abate; she felt that her arduous task was drawing to a happy
close. Pascal's expenses at school amounted to about nine hundred francs
a year; she did not spend more than one hundred on herself; and thus she
was able to save nearly eight hundred francs a year.

It must be admitted that she was admirably seconded in her efforts by
her son. Pascal was only twelve years old when his mother said to him:
"I have ruined you, my son. Nothing remains of the fortune which your
father accumulated by dint of toil and self-sacrifice. You will