r; his invitation when he
thought she was going to question him; his access of passion when,
through heedlessness or forgetfulness, or simply by chance, she asked
him a question on certain subjects, and immediately the tenderness
that followed, so sudden that they appeared rather planned in view of a
determined end than natural or spontaneous.

It was a long time before she admitted the calculation under the sweet
words that made her so happy; but in the end it was well that she should
open her eyes to the evidence, and see that they were with him the
consequences of the same and constant preoccupation, that of not
committing himself.

It was only one step from this to ask him what he did not wish to yield
up.

Yet, as short as it was, she resisted for a long time the curiosity that
possessed her. It was her duty as a loving and devoted wife not to seek
beyond what he showed her, and this duty was in perfect accord with
the dispositions of her love; but the power of things seen carried her
beyond will and reason. She could not apply her mind to search for that
which agonized her, and she could not close her eyes and ears to what
she saw and heard.

And what struck them were the same observations, turning always in the
same circle, applied to the same subjects and persons:

Caffie's name irritated him; Madame Dammauville's angered him;
Florentin's made him positively unhappy.

As for the two former, she might have prevented the pronunciation of
them when she saw the effect they infallibly produced on him.

But she could not prevent the utterance of Florentin's name, even had
she wished it. How could she tell her mother never to speak the name of
him who was constantly in their thoughts?

In spite of Saniel's efforts and solicitations, supported by
Nougarede's, Florentin had embarked for New Caledonia, whence he wrote
as often as he could. His letters related all his sufferings in the
terrible galleys, where he was confined during the voyage, and since his
arrival they were a series of long complaints, continued from one to the
other, like a story without end, turning always on the same subject,
his physical sufferings, his humiliation, his discouragement, and his
disgust in the midst of the unfortunates whose companion he was.

The arrival of these letters filled the mother and sister with anguish
that lasted for several days; and this anguish, that neither of them
could dissimulate, angered Saniel.

"What w