The love of the daughters for their mother had all the tenderness, subtlety, and unselfishness of womanly natures, together with a certain characteristic of the female character.  And whither that one defect led them, and by what gradations, it may be worth the reader’s while to observe.

The baroness retired to rest early; and she was no sooner gone than Josephine leaned over to Rose, and told her what their mother had said to the oak-tree.  Rose heard this with anxiety; hitherto they had carefully concealed from their mother that the government claimed the right of selling the chateau to pay the creditors, etc.; and now both sisters feared the old lady had discovered it somehow, or why that strange thing she had said to the oak-tree?  But Dr. Aubertin caught their remarks, and laid down his immortal Ms. on French insects, to express his hope that they were putting a forced interpretation on the baroness’s words.

“I think,” said he, “she merely meant how short-lived are we all compared with this ancient oak.  I should be very sorry to adopt the other interpretation; for if she knows she can at any moment be expelled from Beaurepaire, it will be almost as bad for her as the calamity itself; that, I think, would kill her.”

“Why so?” said Rose, eagerly.  “What is this house or that?  Mamma will still have her daughters’ love, go where she will.”

Aubertin replied, “It is idle to deceive ourselves; at her age men and women hang to life by their habits; take her away from her chateau, from the little oratory where she prays every day for the departed, from her place in the sun on the south terrace, and from all the memories that surround her here; she would soon pine, and die.”

Here the savant seeing a hobby-horse near, caught him and jumped on.  He launched into a treatise upon the vitality of human beings, and proved that it is the mind which keeps the body of a man alive for so great a length of time as fourscore years; for that he had in the earlier part of his studies carefully dissected a multitude of animals,—­frogs, rabbits, dogs, men, horses, sheep, squirrels, foxes, cats, etc.,—­and discovered no peculiarity in man’s organs to account for his singular longevity, except in the brain or organ of mind.  Thence he went to the longevity of men with contented minds, and the rapid decay of the careworn.  Finally he succeeded in convincing them the baroness was so constituted, physically and mentally, that she would never move from Beaurepaire except into her grave.  However, having thus terrified them, he proceeded to console them.  “You have a friend,” said he, “a powerful friend; and here in my pocket—­somewhere—­is a letter that proves it.”

The letter was from Mr. Perrin the notary.  It appeared by it that Dr. Aubertin had reminded the said Perrin of his obligations to the late baron, and entreated him to use all his influence to keep the estate in this ancient family.