fingers and his eyes were staring
at the paper. The old lady at once struck the edge of the table with
her bony hand; whereupon the lad started, opened his dictionary and
hurriedly began to turn over the leaves. Then, still preserving
silence, his grandmother drew the vine roots together on the hearth and
unsuccessfully attempted to rekindle the fire.

At the time when she had still believed in her son she had sacrificed
her small income, which he had squandered in pursuits she dared not
investigate. Even now he drained the household; all its resources went
to the streets, and it was through him that she lived in penury, with
empty rooms and cold kitchen. She never spoke to him of all those
things, for with her sense of discipline he remained the master. Only at
times she shuddered at the sudden fear that Burle might someday commit
some foolish misdeed which would prevent Charles from entering the army.

She was rising up to fetch a fresh piece of wood in the kitchen when a
fearful hurricane fell upon the house, making the doors rattle, tearing
off a shutter and whirling the water in the broken gutters like a
spout against the window. In the midst of the uproar a ring at the
bell startled the old lady. Who could it be at such an hour and in such
weather? Burle never returned till after midnight, if he came home
at all. However, she went to the door. An officer stood before her,
dripping with rain and swearing savagely.

"Hell and thunder!" he growled. "What cursed weather!"

It was Major Laguitte, a brave old soldier who had served under Colonel
Burle during Mme Burle's palmy days. He had started in life as a drummer
boy and, thanks to his courage rather than his intellect, had attained
to the command of a battalion, when a painful infirmity--the contraction
of the muscles of one of his thighs, due to a wound--obliged him to
accept the post of major. He was slightly lame, but it would have been
imprudent to tell him so, as he refused to own it.

"What, you, Major?" said Mme Burle with growing astonishment.

"Yes, thunder," grumbled Laguitte, "and I must be confoundedly fond of
you to roam the streets on such a night as this. One would think twice
before sending even a parson out."

He shook himself, and little rivulets fell from his huge boots onto the
floor. Then he looked round him.

"I particularly want to see Burle. Is the lazy beggar already in bed?"

"No, he is not in yet," said the old woman in her harsh