their
sister was wailing.

Valentine had sunk upon a chair, stifling with sobs, her limbs
trembling. "The wretch! Ah, how he treats me! To accuse me thus, when
he knows how false it is! Ah! never more; no, never more! I would rather
kill myself; yes, kill myself!"

Then Santerre, who had hitherto stood on one side, gently drew near
to her and ventured to take her hand with a gesture of affectionate
compassion, while saying in an undertone: "Come, calm yourself. You know
very well that you are not alone, that you are not forsaken. There are
some things which cannot touch you. Calm yourself, cease weeping, I beg
you. You distress me dreadfully."

He made himself the more gentle since the husband had been the more
brutal; and he leant over her yet the more closely, and again lowered
his voice till it became but a murmur. Only a few words could be heard:
"It is wrong of you to worry yourself like this. Forget all that folly.
I told you before that he doesn't know how to behave towards a woman."

Twice was that last remark repeated with a sort of mocking pity; and she
smiled vaguely amid her drying tears, in her turn murmuring: "You are
kind, you are. Thank you. And you are quite right.... Ah! if I could
only be a little happy!"

Then Mathieu distinctly saw her press Santerre's hand as if in
acceptance of his consolation. It was the logical, fatal outcome of the
situation--given a wife whom her husband had perverted, a mother who
refused to nurse her babe. And yet a cry from Andree suddenly set
Valentine erect, awaking to the reality of her position. If that poor
creature were so puny, dying for lack of her mother's milk, the mother
also was in danger from her refusal to nurse her and clasp her to her
breast like a buckler of invincible defence. Life and salvation one
through the other, or disaster for both, such was the law. And doubtless
Valentine became clearly conscious of her peril, for she hastened to
take up the child and cover her with caresses, as if to make of her a
protecting rampart against the supreme madness to which she had felt
prompted. And great was the distress that came over her. Her other
children were there, looking and listening, and Mathieu also was still
waiting. When she perceived him her tears gushed forth again, and she
strove to explain things, and even attempted to defend her husband.

"Excuse him, there are moments when he quite loses his head. _Mon Dieu_!
What will become of me with th