ll in business will, I am afraid, with you, play me
some trick. Those who have lived with me a long time know that if I am
hot-headed I have a good heart. They submit to my tyranny; but you who
are a newcomer, how will you like it?"

"I shall do as the others do," said Serge, simply. "I shall be led,
and with pleasure. Think that I have lived for years without kindred,
without ties--at random; and, believe me, any chain will be light and
sweet which holds me to any one or anything. And then," frankly added
he, changing his tone and looking at Madame Desvarennes with tenderness,
"if I did not do everything to please you I should be ungrateful."

"Oh!" cried Madame Desvarennes, "unfortunately that is not a reason."

"Would you have a better one?" said the young man, in his most charming
accent. "If I had not married your daughter for her own sake, I believe
that I should have married her for yours." Madame Desvarennes was quite
pleased, and shaking her finger threateningly at Serge, said:

"Ah, you Pole, you boaster of the North!"

"Seriously," continued Serge, "before I knew I was to be your
son-in-law, I thought you a matchless woman. Add to the admiration I had
for your great qualities the affection which your goodness has inspired,
and you will understand that I am both proud and happy to have such a
mother as you."

Madame Desvarennes looked at Panine attentively; she saw he was sincere.
Then, taking courage, she touched the topic of greatest interest to her.
"If that is the case, you will have no objections to live with me?" She
stopped; then emphasized the words, "With me."

"But was not that understood?" asked Serge, gayly' "I thought so. You
must have seen that I have not been seeking a dwelling for my wife and
myself. If you had not made the offer to me, I should have asked you to
let me stay with you."

Madame Desvarennes broke into such an outburst of joy that she
astonished Panine. It was then only that in that pallor, in that sudden
trembling, in that changed voice, he understood, the immensity of the
mother's love for her daughter.

"I have everything to gain by that arrangement," continued he. "My wife
will be happy at not leaving you, and you will be pleased at my not
having taken away your daughter. You will both like me better, and that
is all I wish."

"How good you are in deciding thus, and how I thank you for it," resumed
Madame Desvarennes. "I feared you would have ideas of independence."