to
allow his father to know any thing about it; forgetting that she was
thus training Maxence to dissimulate, warping his natural sense of
right, and perverting his instincts.

No, she gave; and, to repair the gaps thus made in her treasure, she
worked to the point of ruining her sight, with such eager zeal, that
the worthy shop-keeper of the Rue St. Denis asked her if she did not
employ working girls. In truth, the only help she received was from
Gilberte, who, at the age of eight, already knew how to make herself
useful.

And this is not all. For this son, in anticipation of growing
expenses, she stooped to expedients which formerly would have seemed
to her unworthy and disgraceful. She robbed the household, cheating
on her own marketing. She went so far as to confide to her servant,
and to make of the girl the accomplice of her operations. She
applied all her ingenuity to serve to M. Favoral dinners in which
the excellence of the dressing concealed the want of solid substance.
And on Sunday, when she rendered her weekly accounts, it was without
a blush that she increased by a few centimes the price of each object,
rejoicing when she had thus scraped a dozen francs, and finding, to
justify herself to her own eyes, those sophisms which passion never
lacks.

At first Maxence was too young to wonder from what sources his mother
drew the money she lavished upon his schoolboy fancies. She
recommended him to hide from his father: he did so, and thought it
perfectly natural.

As he grew older, he learned to discern.

The moment came when he opened his eyes upon the system under which
the paternal household was managed. He noticed there that anxious
economy which seems to betray want, and the acrimonious discussions
which arose upon the inconsiderate use of a twenty-franc-piece. He
saw his mother realize miracles of industry to conceal the shabbiness
of her toilets, and resort to the most skillful diplomacy when she
wished to purchase a dress for Gilberte.

And, despite all this, he had at his disposition as much money as
those of his comrades whose parents had the reputation to be the
most opulent and the most generous.

Anxious, he questioned his mother.

"Eh, what does it matter?" she answered, blushing
and confused. "Is that any thing to worry you?"

And, as he insisted,

"Go ahead," she said: "we are rich enough." But he could hardly
believe her, accustomed as he was to hear every one talk of pov