I was completely stunned at first, but after a while I
recovered sufficiently to call here, and found that you had gone
out."
He was interrupted by a nervous laugh from Madame d'Argeles. For
she was heroic enough to laugh, although death was in her heart,
and although the nails of her clinched hands were embedded deep in
her quivering flesh. "And you believed him, monsieur?" she
exclaimed. "Really, this is too absurd! I--your mother! Why, look
at me----"
He was doing nothing else, he was watching her with all the powers
of penetration he possessed. Madame d'Argeles's laugh had an
unnatural ring that awakened his suspicions. All Coralth's
recommendations buzzed confusedly in his ears, and he judged that
the moment had come "to do the sentimental," as he would have
expressed it. So he lowered his head, and in an aggrieved tone,
exclaimed: "Ah! you think it very amusing, I don't. Do you
realize how wretched it makes one to live as utterly alone as a
leper, without a soul to love or care for you? Other young men
have a mother, sisters, relatives. I have no one! Ah! if---- But
I only have friends while my money lasts." He wiped his eyes, dry
as they were, with his handkerchief, and in a still more pathetic
tone, resumed: "Not that I want for anything; I receive a very
handsome allowance. But when my relatives have given me the
wherewithal to keep me from starving, they imagine their duty is
fulfilled.
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