n direct from members of
the Government. And as his losses increased and downfall threatened him,
all that remained of the _bel esprit_ and moralist, once so prone
to discuss literature and social philosophy with Santerre, was an
embittered, impotent individual--one who had proclaimed himself a
pessimist for fashion's sake, and was now caught in his own trap; having
so spoilt his existence that he was now but an artisan of corruption and
death.

All was disaster in his home. Celeste the maid had long since been
dismissed, and the children were now in the charge of a certain German
governess called Nora, who virtually ruled the house. Her position with
respect to Seguin was evident to one and all; but then, what of Seguin's
wife and Santerre? The worst was, that this horrible life, which seemed
to be accepted on either side, was known to the children, or, at all
events, to the elder daughter Lucie, yet scarcely in her teens. There
had been terrible scenes with this child, who evinced a mystical
disposition, and was ever talking of becoming a nun when she grew up.
Gaston, her brother, resembled his father; he was brutal in his ways,
narrow-minded, supremely egotistical. Very different was the little girl
Andree, whom La Catiche had suckled. She had become a pretty child--so
affectionate, docile, and gay, that she scarcely complained even of her
brother's teasing, almost bullying ways. "What a pity," thought Mathieu,
"that so lovable a child should have to grow up amid such surroundings!"

And then his thoughts turned to his own home--to Chantebled. The debts
contracted at the outset of his enterprise had at last been paid, and he
alone was now the master there, resolved to have no other partners than
his wife and children. It was for each of his children that he conquered
a fresh expanse of land. That estate would remain their home, their
source of nourishment, the tie linking them together, even if they
became dispersed through the world in a variety of social positions. And
thus how decisive was that growth of the property, the acquisition
of that last lot of marshland which allowed the whole plateau to be
cultivated! There might now come yet another child, for there would be
food for him; wheat would grow to provide him with daily bread. And when
the work was finished, when the last springs were captured, and the
land had been drained and cleared, how prodigious was the scene at
springtide!--with the whole expanse, as