The interview between the father and son seemed long to Madame Lenoble
and Cydalise. The two women were curious--nay, indeed, somewhat anxious.
"I fear he has made debts," said the mother, "and is telling thy father
of his follies. I know not how they are to be paid, unless with the dowry
of Madelon, and that would seem a dishonourable use of her money."
It was half an hour before any sound broke the stillness of that quiet
house. Twilight had thickened into night, when there came a banging of
doors and heavy footsteps in the hall. The door of the salon was
opened, and M. Lenoble came in alone. At the same moment the outer door
closed heavily.
M. Lenoble went straight to the open window and closed the Venetian
shutters. He went from thence to the second window, the shutters whereof
he fastened carefully, while the women stared at him wonderingly, for it
was not his habit to perform this office.
"I am shutting out a vagabond," he said, in a cold, cruel voice.
"Where is Gustave?" cried the mother, alarmed.
"He is gone."
"But he is coming back, is he not, directly?"
"Never while I live!" answered M. Lenoble. "He has married an English
adventuress, and is no longer any son of mine."
Book the Second.
DOWNHILL.
CHAPTER I.
THE FATE OP SUSAN LENOBLE.
Seven years after that miserable summer night at Beaubocage on which
Gustave Lenoble was disowned by his father, a man and woman, with a boy
five years of age, were starving in a garret amongst the housetops and
chimneys of Rouen.
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