"Not seriously ill?"
"Yes, very ill, in danger. And are you aware that she has been ill like
this ever since she came to speak to you about the quarrel between
Gregoire and Gervais, when it seems that you treated her very roughly."
"I treated her roughly? We simply talked business, and perhaps I spoke to
her like a business man, a little bluntly."
Then Ambroise turned towards Mathieu, who was waiting, pale and silent:
"Is it true, father, that mamma is ill and causes you anxiety?"
And as his father replied with a long affirmative nod, he gave vent to
his emotion, even as Denis had done at the works immediately on learning
the truth.
"But dash it all," he said; "this affair is becoming quite idiotic! In my
opinion Gregoire is right and Gervais wrong. Only I don't care a fig
about that; they must make it up at once, so that poor mamma may not have
another moment's suffering. But then, why did you shut yourselves up? Why
did you not let us know how grieved you were? Every one would have
reflected and understood things."
Then, all at once, Ambroise embraced his father with that promptness of
decision which he displayed to such happy effect in business as soon as
ever a ray of light illumined his mind.
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