ou, and that she will forget your offence. But she is still very
annoyed with you."

Young d'Esparvieu did the honours of his flat to his angel with the
manners of a well-bred man and the tender solicitude of a friend. He
showed him the folding bed which was opened every evening in the
entrance hall and pushed into a dark cupboard in the morning. He showed
him the dressing-table, with its accessories; the bath, the linen
cupboard, the chest of drawers; gave him the necessary information
regarding the heating and lighting; told him that his meals would be
brought and the rooms cleaned by the concierge, and showed him which
bell to press when he required that person's services. He told him also
that he must consider himself at home, and receive whom he wished.

CHAPTER XXVIII

WHICH TREATS OF A PAINFUL DOMESTIC SCENE

So long as Maurice confined his selection of mistresses to respectable
women, his conduct had called forth no reproach. It was a different
matter when he took up with Bouchotte. His mother, who had closed her
eyes to liaisons which, though guilty, were elegant and discreet, was
scandalised when it came to her ears that her son was openly parading
about with a music-hall singer. By dint of much prying and probing,
Berthe, Maurice's younger sister, had got to know of her brother's
adventures, and she narrated them, without any indignation, to her young
girl friends. His little brother Leon declared to his mother one day, in
the presence of several ladies, that when he was big he, too, would go
on the spree, like Maurice. This was a sore wound to the maternal heart
of Madame d'Esparvieu.

About the same time there occurred a family event of a very grave nature
which occasioned much alarm to Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu. Drafts were
presented to him signed in his name by his son. His writing had not been
forged, but there was no doubt that it had been the son's intention to
pass off the signature as his father's. It showed a perverted moral
sense; whence it appeared that Maurice was living a life of profligacy,
that he was running into debt and on the point of outraging the
decencies. The paterfamilias talked the matter over with his wife. It
was arranged that he should give his son a very severe lecture, hint at
vigorous corrective measures, and that in due course the mother should
appear with gentle and sorrowing mien and endeavour to soothe the
righteous indignation of the father. This plan bei