But far
from being in a position to do so before the appointed date was passed,
he had been obliged to cede yet another share to the young man, in order
to free himself of debts which he could not confess.
From that time forward it became a habit with Beauchene to cede Denis a
fresh share every two years. A third followed the second, then came the
turn of the fourth and the fifth, in such wise, indeed, that after a
final arrangement, he had not even kept a whole share for himself; but
simply some portion of the sixth. And even that was really fictitious,
for Denis had only acknowledged it in order to have a pretext for
providing him with a certain income, which, by the way, he subdivided,
handing half of it to Constance every month.
She, therefore, was ignorant of nothing. She knew that, as a matter of
fact, the works would belong to that son of the hated Froments, whenever
he might choose to close the doors on their old master, who, as it
happened, was never seen now in the workshops. True, there was a clause
in the covenant which admitted, so long as that covenant should not be
broken, the possibility of repurchasing all the shares at one and the
same time.
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