as so worried that he never
knew what the morrow would bring? He had obtained the position that his
ambition coveted; he had sufficient money for his wants; he admitted
that his experiments had succeeded beyond his expectations; the essays
that he published on his experiments were loudly discussed, praised by
some, contested by others; it seemed that he had attained his object;
and he was sad, discontented, unhappy, more tormented than when he
exhausted himself with efforts, without other support than his will. At
last, when frightened to see him thus, she questioned him as to how he
felt, he became angry, and answered brutally--

"Ill? Why do you think that I am--ill? Am I not better able than any
one to know how I am? I am overworked, that is all; and as my life of
privation does not permit me to repair my forces, I have become anaemic;
it is not serious. It is strange, truly, that you ask for explanations
of what is natural. Count the teeth of the polytechnicians and look at
their hair after their examinations, and tell me what you think of them.
Why do you think anything else is the matter with me? One cannot expend
one's self with impunity; that would be too good. Everything must be
paid for in this world."

She was obliged to believe that he was right and understood his
condition; however, she could not help worrying. She knew nothing of
medicine; she did not know the meaning of the medical terms he used,
but she found that this was not sufficient to explain all--neither his
roughness of temper and excess of anger without reason, any more than
his sudden tenderness, his weakness and dejection, his preoccupation and
absence of mind.

She discovered the effect she produced on him, and how, merely by her
presence, she cheered this gloomy fancy and raised this depression by
not asking him stupid questions on certain subjects which she had not
yet determined on, but which she hoped to avoid. Also, she did not wish
to leave him, and ingeniously invented excuses to go to see him twice
a day; in the morning on going to her lessons, and in the afternoon or
evening.

Late one evening she rang his bell with a hand made nervous with joy.

"I have come to stay till to-morrow," she said, in triumphant tones.

She expected that he would express his joy by an embrace, but he did
nothing.

"Are you going out?"

"Not at all; I am not thinking of myself, but of your mother."

"Do you think that I would have left her alone