and her children had been so
sudden and so crushing, that they had been, on the moment, too
stupefied to realize it. What had happened went so far beyond the
limits of the probable, of the possible even, that they could not
believe it. The too cruel scenes which had just taken place were
to them like the absurd incidents of a horrible nightmare.

But when their guests had retired after a few commonplace
protestations, when they found themselves alone, all three, in that
house whose master had just fled, tracked by the police,--then
only, as the disturbed equilibrium of their minds became somewhat
restored, did they fully realize the extent of the disaster, and
the horror of the situation.

Whilst Mme. Favoral lay apparently lifeless on an arm-chair,
Gilberte kneeling at her feet, Maxence was walking up and down the
parlor with furious steps. He was whiter than the plaster on the
halls; and a cold perspiration glued his tangled hair to his temples.

His eyes glistening, and his fists clinched,

"Our father a thief!" he kept repeating in a hoarse voice, "a forger!"

And in fact never had the slightest suspicion arisen in his mind.
In these days of doubtful reputations, he had been proud indeed of
M. Favoral's reputation of austere integrity. And he had endured
many a cruel reproach, saying to himself that his father had, by his
own spotless conduct, acquired the right to be harsh and exacting.

"And he has stolen twelve millions!" he exclaimed.

And he went on, trying to calculate all the luxury and splendor
which such a sum represents, all the cravings gratified, all the
dreams realized, all it can procure of things that may be bought.
And what things are not for sale for twelve millions!

Then he examined the gloomy home in the Rue St. Gilles,--the
contracted dwelling, the faded furniture, the prodigies of a
parsimonious industry, his mother's privations, his sister's penury,
and his own distress. And he exclaimed again,

"It is a monstrous infamy!"

The words of the commissary of police had opened his eyes; and he
now fancied the most wonderful things. M. Favoral, in his mind,
assumed fabulous proportions. By what miracles of hypocrisy and
dissimulation had he succeeded in making himself ubiquitous as it
were, and, without awaking a suspicion, living two lives so distinct
and so different,--here, in the midst of his family, parsimonious,
methodic, and severe; elsewhere, in some illicit household,
d