Madame Claes’s watchful care now centred upon her eldest daughter, to whom she endeavored to communicate her own self-devotion towards Balthazar.  The firmness and sound judgment which she recognized in the young girl made her tremble at the thought of a possible struggle between father and daughter whenever her own death should make the latter mistress of the household.  The poor woman had reached a point where she dreaded the consequences of her death far more than death itself.  Her tender solicitude for Balthazar showed itself in the resolution she had this day taken.  By freeing his property from encumbrance she secured his independence, and prevented all future disputes by separating his interests from those of her children.  She hoped to see him happy until she closed her eyes on earth, and she studied to transmit the tenderness of her own heart to Marguerite, trusting that his daughter might continue to be to him an angel of love, while exercising over the family a protecting and conservative authority.  Might she not thus shed the light of her love upon her dear ones from beyond the grave?  Nevertheless, she was not willing to lower the father in the eyes of his daughter by initiating her into the secret dangers of his scientific passion before it became necessary to do so.  She studied Marguerite’s soul and character, seeking to discover if the girl’s own nature would lead her to be a mother to her brothers and her sister, and a tender, gentle helpmeet to her father.

Madame Claes’s last days were thus embittered by fears and mental disquietudes which she dared not confide to others.  Conscious that the recent scene had struck her death-blow, she turned her thoughts wholly to the future.  Balthazar, meanwhile, now permanently unfitted for the care of property or the interests of domestic life, thought only of the Absolute.

The heavy silence that reigned in the parlor was broken only by the monotonous beating of Balthazar’s foot, which he continued to trot, wholly unaware that Jean had slid from his knee.  Marguerite, who was sitting beside her mother and watching the changes on that pallid, convulsed face, turned now and again to her father, wondering at his indifference.  Presently the street-door clanged, and the family saw the Abbe de Solis leaning on the arm of his nephew and slowly crossing the court-yard.

“Ah! there is Monsieur Emmanuel,” said Felicie.

“That good young man!” exclaimed Madame Claes; “I am glad to welcome him.”

Marguerite blushed at the praise that escaped her mother’s lips.  For the last two days a remembrance of the young man had stirred mysterious feelings in her heart, and wakened in her mind thoughts that had lain dormant.  During the visit made by the Abbe de Solis to Madame Claes on the occasion of his examining the pictures, there happened certain of those imperceptible events which wield so great an influence upon life; and their results were sufficiently important to necessitate a brief sketch of the two personages now first introduced into the history of this family.