ne? Why, you're all 'perlute'," said the
grandfather, seated behind his huge desk.

Perlute, in the Berrichon dictionary, signifies troubled, excited,
upset, and applied perfectly to Claire's condition. Her rapid walk in
the cold country air, the effort she had made in order to do what she
was doing, imparted an unwonted expression to her face, which was much
less reserved than usual. Without the slightest encouragement on his
part, she kissed him and seated herself in front of the fire, where old
stumps, surrounded by dry moss and pine needles picked up in the paths,
were smouldering with occasional outbursts of life and the hissing of
sap. She did not even take time to shake off the frost that stood
in beads on her veil, but began to speak at once, faithful to her
resolution to state the object of her visit immediately upon entering
the room, before she allowed herself to be intimidated by the atmosphere
of fear and respect which encompassed the grandfather and made of him a
sort of awe-inspiring deity.

She required all her courage not to become confused, not to interrupt
her narrative before that piercing gaze which transfixed her, enlivened
from her first words by a malicious joy, before that savage mouth whose
corners seemed tightly closed by premeditated reticence, obstinacy, a
denial of any sort of sensibility. She went on to the end in one speech,
respectful without humility, concealing her emotion, steadying her voice
by the consciousness of the truth of her story. Really, seeing them thus
face to face, he cold and calm, stretched out in his armchair, with
his hands in the pockets of his gray swansdown waistcoat, she carefully
choosing her words, as if each of them might condemn or absolve her, you
would never have said that it was a child before her grandfather, but an
accused person before an examining magistrate.

His thoughts were entirely engrossed by the joy, the pride of his
triumph. So they were conquered at last, those proud upstarts of
Fromonts! So they needed old Gardinois at last, did they? Vanity, his
dominating passion, overflowed in his whole manner, do what he would.
When she had finished, he took the floor in his turn, began naturally
enough with "I was sure of it--I always said so--I knew we should see
what it would all come to"--and continued in the same vulgar, insulting
tone, ending with the declaration that, in view of his principles, which
were well known in the family, he would not le