daughter presided over the milliner's. The two shops were next door
to one another. Behind the milliner's was a drawing-room, behind the
cheese shop a kitchen; these two rooms communicated with each other by
a large dark room at the back of the building. In the kitchen was a
trap-door leading to a cellar. The two women shared a bedroom in an
adjoining house.

Vitalis had opposed the scheme of his mistress to start shop-keeping in
Marseilles. He knew how unfitted she was to undertake a business of
any kind. But neither mother nor daughter would relinquish the plan. It
remained therefore to make the best of it. Vitalis saw that he must get
the business into his own hands; and to do that, to obtain full control
of Madame Boyer's affairs, he must continue to play the lover to her. To
the satisfaction of the two women, he announced his intention of coming
to Marseilles in the New Year of 1877. It was arranged that he should
pass as a nephew of Madame Boyer, the cousin of Marie. He arrived at
Marseilles on January 1, and received a cordial welcome. Of the domestic
arrangements that ensued, it is sufficient to say that they were
calculated to whet the jealousy and inflame the hatred that Marie felt
towards her mother, who now persisted as before in parading before her
daughter the intimacy of her relations with Vitalis.

In these circumstances Vitalis succeeded in extracting from his mistress
a power of attorney, giving him authority to deal with her affairs and
sell the two businesses, which were turning out unprofitable. This done,
he told Marie, whose growing attachment to him, strange as it may seem,
had turned to love, that now at last they could be free. He would sell
the two shops, and with the money released by the sale they could go
away to-gether. Suddenly Madame Boyer fell ill, and was confined to her
bed. Left to themselves, the growing passion of Marie Boyer for Vitalis
culminated in her surrender. But for the sick mother the happiness of
the lovers was complete. If only her illness were more serious, more
likely to be fatal in its result! "If only God would take her!" said
Vitalis. "Yes," replied her daughter, "she has caused us so much
suffering!"

To Madame Boyer her illness had brought hours of torment, and at last
remorse. She realised the duplicity of her lover, she knew that he meant
to desert her for her daughter, she saw what wrong she had done that
daughter, she suspected even that Marie and Vitalis w