Marianne, whose eyes were moist, and who felt divinely happy, so happy that she seemed already well again, simply replied to Mathieu:  “You see, my friend, it’s done.  But as yet I know nothing further.  Gregoire came here and kissed me, and wished me to send for Gervais and Claire at once.  Then, of his own accord, he told them that they were all three mad in causing me such grief, and that they ought to come to an understanding together.  Thereupon they kissed one another.  And now it’s done; it’s all over.”

But Gregoire gayly intervened.  “Wait a moment; just listen; I cut too fine a figure in the story as mamma relates it, and I must tell you the truth.  I wasn’t the first to desire the reconciliation; the first was my wife, Therese.  She has a good sterling heart and the very brains of a mule, in such wise that whenever she is determined on anything I always have to do it in the end.  Well, yesterday evening we had a bit of a quarrel, for she had heard, I don’t know how, that mamma was ill with grief.  And this pained her, and she tried to prove to me how stupid the quarrel was, for we should all of us lose by it.  This morning she began again, and of course she convinced me, more particularly as, with the thought of poor mamma lying ill through our fault, I had hardly slept all night.  But father Lepailleur still had to be convinced, and Therese undertook to do that also.  She even hit upon something extraordinary, so that the old man might imagine that he was the conqueror of conquerors.  She persuaded him at last to sell you that terrible enclosure at such an insane price that he will be able to shout ‘victory!’ over all the house-tops.”

Then turning to his brother and sister, Gregoire added, in a jocular tone; “My dear Gervais, my dear Claire, let yourselves be robbed, I beg of you.  The peace of my home is at stake.  Give my father-in-law the last joy of believing that he alone has always been in the right, and that we have never been anything but fools.”

“Oh! as much money as he likes,” replied Gervais, laughing.  “Besides, that enclosure has always been a dishonor for the estate, streaking it with stones and brambles, like a nasty sore.  We have long dreamt of seeing the property spotless, with its crops waving without a break under the sun.  And Chantebled is rich enough to pay for its glory.”

Thus the affair was settled.  The wheat of the farm would return to the mill to be ground, and the mother would get well again.  It was the force of life, the need of love, the union necessary for the whole family if it were to continue victorious, that had imposed true brotherliness on the sons, who for a moment had been foolish enough to destroy their power by assailing one another.

The delight of finding themselves once more together there, Denis, Ambroise, Gervais, Gregoire, the four big brothers, and Claire, the big sister, all reconciled and again invincible, increased when Charlotte arrived, bringing with her the other three daughters, Louise, Madeleine, and Marthe, who had married and settled in the district.  Louise, having heard that her mother was ill, had gone to fetch her sisters, in order that they might repair to Chantebled together.  And what a hearty laugh there was when the procession entered!