" However, when Marianne begged her to
kiss the children for her, she added: "Why, yes, it's true you have not
seen them. Wait a moment, pray; I want you to kiss them yourself."
But when Celeste appeared in answer to the bell, she announced that
Monsieur Gaston and Mademoiselle Lucie had gone out with their governess.
And this made Seguin explode once more. All his rancor against his wife
revived. The house was going to rack and ruin. She spent her days lying
on a sofa. Since when had the governess taken leave to go out with the
children without saying anything? One could not even see the children now
in order to kiss them. It was a nice state of things. They were left to
the servants; in fact, it was the servants now who controlled the house.
Thereupon Valentine began to cry.
"_Mon Dieu_!" said Marianne to her husband, when she found herself out of
doors, able to breathe, and happy once more now that she was leaning on
his arm; "why, they are quite mad, the people in that house."
"Yes," Mathieu responded, "they are mad, no doubt; but we must pity them,
for they know not what happiness is."
VI
ABOUT nine o'clock one fine cold morning, a few days afterwards, as
Mathieu, bound for his office, a little late through having lingered near
his wife, was striding hastily across the garden which separated the
pavilion from the factory yard, he met Constance and Maurice, who, clad
in furs, were going out for a walk in the sharp air.
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