"
Again, a month went by. Then, one rainy morning in October, Madame
Lepailleur was found hanging in the mill stable. There were folks at
Janville who related that Lepailleur had hung her there. The truth was
that she had given signs of melancholia ever since the death of Antonin.
Moreover, the life led at the mill was no longer bearable; day by day the
husband and wife reproached one another for their son's death and their
daughter's flight, battling ragefully together like two abandoned beasts
shut up in the same cage. Folks were merely astonished that such a harsh,
avaricious woman should have been willing to quit this life without
taking her goods and chattels with her.
As soon as Therese heard of her mother's death she hastened home,
repentant, and took her place beside her father again, unwilling as she
was that he should remain alone in his two-fold bereavement. At first it
proved a terrible time for her in the company of that brutal old man who
was exasperated by what he termed his bad luck. But she was a girl of
sterling courage and prompt decision; and thus, after a few weeks, she
had made her father consent to her marriage with Gregoire, which, as
Mathieu had said, was the only sensible course.
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