When
Mathieu and Marianne approached her she would not speak, but simply
nodded. Still a little color came to her cheeks, and her eyes smiled. And
when the others, after lingering there for a moment in sorrowful
contemplation, had quietly returned to the drawing-room, she resumed her
work alone, in the presence of the dead, among the roses and the tapers.
Morange was still walking the drawing-room like a lost, wandering
phantom. Mathieu remained standing there, while Marianne sat down near
the folding doors. Not another word was exchanged; the spell of waiting
continued amid the oppressive silence of the dim, closed room. When some
ten minutes had elapsed, two other visitors arrived, a lady and a
gentleman, whom the Froments could not at first recognize. Morange bowed
and received them in his dazed way. Then, as the lady did not release her
hold of the gentleman's hand, but led him along, as if he were blind,
between the articles of furniture, so that he might not knock against
them, Marianne and Mathieu realized that the new comers were the
Angelins.
Since the previous winter they had sold their little house at Janville to
fix themselves in Paris, for a last misfortune had befallen them--the
failure of a great banking house had carried away almost the whole of
their modest fortune.
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