Then
he, with flushed cheeks and an angry air, resumed, addressing one and
all: "As soon as the superintendent turns her back you chatter away like
so many magpies. Just be careful, or you will have to deal with me!"
Moineaud, the father, had witnessed the scene unmoved, as if the two
girls--she whom the master had scolded, and she who slyly gazed at
him--were not his own daughters. And now the round was resumed and the
three men quitted the women's workshop amidst profound silence, which
only the whir of the little grinders disturbed.
When the fitting difficulty had been overcome downstairs and Moineaud had
received his orders, Beauchene returned to his residence accompanied by
Mathieu, who wished to convey Marianne's invitation to Constance. A
gallery connected the black factory buildings with the luxurious private
house on the quay. And they found Constance in a little drawing-room hung
with yellow satin, a room to which she was very partial. She was seated
near a sofa, on which lay little Maurice, her fondly prized and only
child, who had just completed his seventh year.
"Is he ill?" inquired Mathieu.
The child seemed sturdily built, and he greatly resembled his father,
though he had a more massive jaw.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36