bent beneath her stern hand. The pact between them
was an old one, it dated from that monstrous thing which they alone
knew, that complicity of which they never spoke, but which bound them so
closely together.

He, with his weak, good nature, seemed from that day to have remained
annihilated, tamed, cowed like a frightened animal. Since that day, too,
he had learnt many other things, and now no secret of the house remained
unknown to him. This was not surprising. He had been living there so
many years. He had so often walked to and fro with his short, discreet,
maniacal step, hearing, seeing, and surprising everything! However, this
madman, who knew the truth and who remained silent--this madman, left
free amid the mysterious drama enacted in the Beauchenes' home, was
gradually coming to a rebellious mood, particularly since he was
compelled to hide himself to kiss his little friend Hortense. His heart
growled at the thought of it, and he felt ready to explode should his
passion be interfered with.

All at once, one evening, Constance kept him to dinner. And he suspected
that the hour of her revelations had come, on seeing how she quivered
and how erectly she carried her little figure, like a fighter henceforth
certain of victory. Nevertheless, although the servant left them alone
after bringing in at one journey the whole of the frugal repast, she did
not broach the great affair at table. She spoke of the factory and then
of Denis and his wife Marthe, whom she criticised, and she was even
so foolish as to declare that Hortense was badly behaved, ugly, and
destitute of grace. The accountant, like the coward he was, listened to
her, never daring to protest in spite of the irritation and rebellion of
his whole being.

"Well, we shall see," she said at last, "when one and all are put back
into their proper places."

Then she waited until they returned to the little drawing-room, and the
doors were shut behind them; and it was only then, near the fire,
amid the deep silence of the winter evening, that she spoke out on the
subject which she had at heart:

"As I think I have already told you, my friend, I have need of you.
You must obtain employment at the works for a young man in whom I am
interested. And if you desire to please me, you will even take him into
your own office."

Morange, who was seated in front of her on the other side of the
chimney-piece, gave her a look of surprise.

"But I am not the master," he