"
"But what did she say to you?"
"She simply wanted to beat me. When I shook her, she flew at me in a
drunken fury, shouting abominable words. And I had time only to escape
with the little one, while she began barricading herself in the room,
where she is now smashing the furniture! There! just listen!"
Indeed, a distant uproar of destruction reached them. They looked one at
the other, and deep silence fell, full of embarrassment and alarm.
"And then?" Seguin ended by asking in his curt dry voice.
"Well, what can I say? That woman is a brute beast, and I can't leave
Andree in her charge to be killed by her. I have brought the child here,
and I certainly shall not take her back. I will even own that I won't run
the risk of going back to the room. You will have to turn the girl out of
doors, after paying her wages."
"I! I!" cried Seguin. Then, walking up and down as if spurring on the
anger which was rising within him, he burst forth: "I've had enough, you
know, of all these idiotic stories! This house has become a perfect hell
upon earth all through that child! There will soon be nothing but
fighting here from morning till night.
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