ere poisoning her.
Irreligious till now, her thoughts turned to religion. As soon as she
could leave her bed she would go to Mass and make atonement for her sin;
she would recover her power of attorney, get rid of Vitalis for good
and all, and send her daughter back to a convent. But it was too late.
Nemesis was swift to overtake the hapless woman. Try as he might,
Vitalis had found it impossible to sell the shops at anything but a
worthless figure. He had no money of his own, with which to take Marie
away. He knew that her mother had resolved on his instant dismissal.

As soon as Madame Boyer was recovered sufficiently to leave her bed,
she turned on her former lover, denounced his treachery, accused him
of robbing and swindling her, and bade him go without delay. To Vitalis
dismissal meant ruin, to Marie it meant the loss of her lover. During
her illness the two young people had wished Madame Boyer dead, but she
had recovered. Providence or Nature having refused to assist Vitalis,
he resolved to fall back on art. He gave up a whole night's rest to
the consideration of the question. As a result of his deliberations he
suggested to the girl of seventeen the murder of her mother. "This must
end," said Vitalis. "Yes, it must," replied Marie. Vitalis asked her if
she had any objection to such a crime. Marie hesitated, the victim was
her mother. Vitalis reminded her what sort of a mother she had been to
her. The girl said that she was terrified at the sight of blood; Vitalis
promised that her mother should be strangled. At length Marie consented.
That night on some slight pretext Madame Boyer broke out into violent
reproaches against her daughter. She little knew that every reproach
she uttered served only to harden in her daughter's heart her unnatural
resolve.

On the morning of March 19 Madame Boyer rose early to go to Mass.

Before she went out, she reminded Vitalis that this was his last day in
her service, that when she returned she would expect to find him gone.
It was after seven when she left the house. The lovers had no time to
lose; the deed must be done immediately on the mother's return. They
arranged that Vitalis should get rid of the shop-boy, and that, as soon
as he had gone, Marie should shut and lock the front doors of the
two shops. At one o'clock Madame Boyer came back. She expressed her
astonishment and disgust that Vitalis still lingered, and threatened to
send for the police to turn him out. Vitalis