Henriette turned towards her husband, in stupefaction at first, but then an irresistible desire to laugh shone in her eyes, passed like a slight shiver over her delicate cheeks, made her upper lip curl and her nostrils dilate, and at last a clear, bright burst of mirth came from her lips, a torrent of gayety which was lively and sonorous as the song of a bird.  She repeated, with little mischievous exclamations which issued from between her white teeth, and hurt Parent as much as a bite would have done:  “Ha!... ha!... ha!... ha! she beat ... she beat ... my husband ... ha!... ha! ha!...  How funny!...  Do you hear, Limousin?  Julie has beaten ... has beaten ... my ... husband ...  Oh! dear oh! dear ... how very funny!”

But Parent protested:  “No ... no ... it is not true, it is not true ...  It was I, on the contrary, who threw her into the dining room so violently that she knocked the table over.  The child did not see clearly, I beat her!” “Here, my darling.”  Henriette said to her boy “did Julie beat papa?” “Yes, it was Julie,” he replied.  But then, suddenly turning to another idea, she said, “But the child has had no dinner?  You have had nothing to eat, my pet?” “No, mamma.”  Then she again turned furiously onto her husband.  “Why, you must be mad, utterly mad!  It is half past eight, and George has had no dinner!”

He excused himself as best he could, for he had nearly lost his wits by the overwhelming scene and the explanation, and felt crushed by this ruin of his life.  “But, my dear, we were waiting for you, as I did not wish to dine without you.  As you come home late every day, I expected you every moment.”

She threw her bonnet, which she had kept on till then, into an easy chair, and in an angry voice she said:  “It is really intolerable to have to do with people who can understand nothing, who can divine nothing, and do nothing by themselves.  So, I suppose, if I were to come in at twelve o’clock at night, the child would have had nothing to eat?  Just as if you could not have understood that, as it was after half past seven, I was prevented from coming home, that I had met with some hindrance!...”

Parent trembled, for he felt that his anger was getting the upper hand, but Limousin interposed and turning towards the young woman, he said:  “My dear friend, you are altogether unjust.  Parent could not guess that you would come here so late, as you never do so, and then, how would you expect him to get over the difficulty all by himself, after having sent away Julie?”

But Henriette was very angry and replied “Well, at any rate, he must get over the difficulty himself, for I will not help him.  Let him settle it”.  And she went into her own room, quite forgetting that her child had not had anything to eat.

Then Limousin immediately set to work to help his friend.  He picked up the broken glass which strewed the table and took them out.  He replaced the plates, knives and forks and put the child into his high chair.  While Parent went to look for the lady’s maid, to wait at table; who came in great astonishment.  As she had heard nothing in George’s room, where she had been working.  She soon however, brought in the soup, a burnt leg of mutton, and mashed potatoes.