ings with you."

But Limousin did not move, and Parent, in a fresh access of rage, cried
out: "Go, will you? Go, you wretches! Or else--or else----" He seized a
chair and whirled it over his head.

Henriette walked quickly across the room, took her lover by the arm,
dragged him from the wall, to which he appeared fixed, and led him
toward the door, saying: "Do come, my friend--you see that the man is
mad. Do come!"

As she went out she turned round to her husband, trying to think of
something that she could do, something that she could invent to wound
him to the heart as she left the house, and an idea struck her, one
of those venomous, deadly ideas in which all a woman's perfidy shows
itself, and she said resolutely: "I am going to take my child with me."

Parent was stupefied, and stammered: "Your--your--child? You dare
to talk of your child? You venture--you venture to ask for your
child--after-after--Oh, oh, that is too much! Go, you vile creature!
Go!"

She went up to him again, almost smiling, almost avenged already, and
defying him, standing close to him, and face to face, she said: "I want
my child, and you have no right to keep him, because he is not yours--do
you understand? He is not yours! He is Limousin's!"

And Parent cried out in bewilderment: "You lie--you lie--worthless
woman!"

But she continued: "You fool! Everybody knows it except you. I tell you,
this is his father. You need only look at him to see it."

Parent staggered backward, and then he suddenly turned round, took a
candle, and rushed into the next room; returning almost immediately,
carrying little George wrapped up in his bedclothes. The child, who had
been suddenly awakened, was crying from fright. Parent threw him into
his wife's arms, and then, without speaking, he pushed her roughly out
toward the stairs, where Limousin was waiting, from motives of prudence.

Then he shut the door again, double-locked and bolted it, but had
scarcely got back into the drawing-room when he fell to the floor at
full length.

Parent lived alone, quite alone. During the five weeks that followed
their separation, the feeling of surprise at his new life prevented
him from thinking much. He had resumed his bachelor life, his habits
of lounging, about, and took his meals at a restaurant, as he had
done formerly. As he wished to avoid any scandal, he made his wife an
allowance, which was arranged by their lawyers. By degrees, however,
the thought of t