-day they are as eager for pleasure as they used to be
for sugar-plums. When they were little girls I indulged them in every
whim. They had a carriage of their own when they were fifteen. They
have never been crossed. I am guilty, and not they--but I sinned through
love.

"My heart would open at the sound of their voices. I can hear them; they
are coming. Yes! yes! they are coming. The law demands that they should
be present at their father's deathbed; the law is on my side. It would
only cost them the hire of a cab. I would pay that. Write to them, tell
them that I have millions to leave to them! On my word of honor, yes. I
am going to manufacture Italian paste foods at Odessa. I understand the
trade. There are millions to be made in it. Nobody has thought of the
scheme as yet. You see, there will be no waste, no damage in transit,
as there always is with wheat and flour. Hey! hey! and starch too; there
are millions to be made in the starch trade! You will not be telling
a lie. Millions, tell them; and even if they really come because they
covet the money, I would rather let them deceive me; and I shall see
them in any case. I want my children! I gave them life; they are mine,
mine!" and he sat upright. The head thus raised, with its scanty white
hair, seemed to Eugene like a threat; every line that could still speak
spoke of menace.

"There, there, dear father," said Eugene, "lie down again; I will write
to them at once. As soon as Bianchon comes back I will go for them
myself, if they do not come before."

"If they do not come?" repeated the old man, sobbing. "Why, I shall
be dead before then; I shall die in a fit of rage, of rage! Anger is
getting the better of me. I can see my whole life at this minute. I have
been cheated! They do not love me--they have never loved me all their
lives! It is all clear to me. They have not come, and they will not
come. The longer they put off their coming, the less they are likely
to give me this joy. I know them. They have never cared to guess my
disappointments, my sorrows, my wants; they never cared to know my life;
they will have no presentiment of my death; they do not even know the
secret of my tenderness for them. Yes, I see it all now. I have laid my
heart open so often, that they take everything I do for them as a matter
of course. They might have asked me for the very eyes out of my head and
I would have bidden them to pluck them out. They think that all fathers
are lik