How old is she?"
"Nearly thirteen," Valerie replied.
She had seated herself in the armchair vacated by Constance, and Mathieu
noticed what a keen expression of anxiety there was in her soft eyes.
After mentioning that she also had called in passing to make inquiries,
and declaring that both mother and children looked remarkably well, she
relapsed into gloomy silence, scarcely listening to Marianne, who thanked
her for having come. Thereupon it occurred to Mathieu to leave her with
his wife. To him it seemed that she must have something on her mind, and
perhaps she wished to make a confidante of Marianne.
"My dear Reine," said he, "come with these little ones into the
dining-room. We will see what afternoon snack there is, and lay the
cloth."
This proposal was greeted with shouts of delight, and all the children
trooped into the dining-room with Mathieu. A quarter of an hour later,
when everything was ready there, and Valerie came in, the latter's eyes
looked very red, as if she had been weeping. And that evening, when
Mathieu was alone with his wife, he learnt what the trouble was.
Morange's scheme of leaving the Beauchene works and entering the service
of the Credit National, where he would speedily rise to a high and
lucrative position, his hope too of giving Reine a big dowry and marrying
her off to advantage--all the ambitious dreams of rank and wealth in
which his wife and he had indulged, now showed no likelihood of
fulfilment, since it seemed probable that Valerie might again have a
child.
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