"I promise
you I'll leave him, mother," he declared, "so you may be quite
easy in mind."
"Very well; but now, at this moment, where are you going?"
There was only one way of completely reassuring the good woman,
and that was to tell her all. Chupin did so with absolute
frankness. "Ah, well!" she said, when the narrative was finished.
"You see now how easy it is to lead you astray! How could you be
induced to play the part of a spy, when you know so well what it
leads to? It's only God's protecting care that has saved you again
from an act which you would have reproached yourself for all your
life. Your employer's intentions are good now; but they WERE
criminal when he ordered you to follow Madame d'Argeles. Poor
woman! She had sacrificed herself for her son, she had concealed
herself from him, and you were working to betray her. Poor
creature! how she must have suffered, and how much I pity her! To
be what she is, and to see herself denounced by her own son! I,
who am only a poor plebeian, should die of shame under such
circumstances."
Chupin blew his nose so loudly that the window-panes rattled; this
was his way of repressing his emotion whenever it threatened to
overcome him. "You speak like the good mother that you are," he
exclaimed at last," and I'm prouder of you than if you were the
handsomest and richest lady in Paris, for you're certainly the
most honest and virtuous; and I should be a thorough scoundrel if
I caused you a moment's sorrow.
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