they could on the meagre rations
accorded by the Government. Still Isaura attended the ambulance to which
she was attached. From the ladies associated with her she could readily
have obtained ample supplies: but they had no conception of her real
state of destitution; and there was a false pride generally prevalent
among the respectable classes, which Isaura shared, that concealed
distress lest alms should be proffered.

The destitution of the household had been carefully concealed from the
parents of Gustave Rameau, until, one day, Madame Rameau, entering at
the hour at which she generally, and her husband sometimes, came for
a place by the fireside and a seat at the board, found on the one only
ashes, on the other a ration of the black nauseous compound which had
become the substitute for bread.

Isaura was absent on her duties at the ambulance hospital,--purposely
absent, for she shrank from the bitter task of making clear to the
friends of her betrothed the impossibility of continuing the aid to
their support which their son had neglected to contribute; and still
more from the comment which she knew they would make on his conduct, in
absenting himself so wholly of late, and in the time of such trial and
pressure, both from them and from herself. Truly, she rejoiced at
that absence so far as it affected herself. Every hour of the day she
silently asked her conscience whether she were not now absolved from
a promise won from her only by an assurance that she had power to
influence for good the life that now voluntarily separated itself from
her own. As she had never loved Gustave, so she felt no resentment at
the indifference his conduct manifested. On the contrary, she hailed it
as a sign that the annulment of their betrothal would be as welcome
to him as to herself. And if so, she could restore to him the sort of
compassionate friendship she had learned to cherish in the hour of his
illness and repentance. She had resolved to seize the first opportunity
he afforded to her of speaking to him with frank and truthful plainness.
But, meanwhile, her gentle nature recoiled from the confession of
her resolve to appeal to Gustave himself for the rupture of their
engagement.

Thus the Venosta alone received Madame Rameau; and while that lady was
still gazing round her with an emotion too deep for immediate utterance,
her husband entered with an expression of face new to him--the look of
a man who has been stung to anger,