“It was Julie, who——­” But she interrupted him furiously: 

“That is too much, really!  Julie speaks of me as if I were a shameless woman, beats my child, breaks my plates and dishes, turns my house upside down, and it appears that you think it all quite natural.”

“Certainly not, as I have got rid of her.”

“Really!  You have got rid of her!  But you ought to have given her in charge.  In such cases, one ought to call in the Commissary of Police!”

“But—­my dear—­I really could not.  There was no reason.  It would have been very difficult——­”

She shrugged her shoulders disdainfully.  “There! you will never be anything but a poor, wretched fellow, a man without a will, without any firmness or energy.  Ah! she must have said some nice things to you, your Julie, to make you turn her off like that.  I should like to have been here for a minute, only for a minute.”  Then she opened the drawing-room door and ran to George, took him into her arms and kissed him, and said:  “Georgie, what is it, my darling, my pretty one, my treasure?”

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 upon 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 through 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 toward the young woman, 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 could 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,” she replied.  “Let him settle it!” And she went into her own room, quite forgetting that her child had not had anything to eat.

Limousin immediately set to work to help his friend.  He picked up the broken glasses which strewed the table and took them out, replaced the plates and knives and forks, and put the child into his high chair, while Parent went to look for the chambermaid to wait at table.  The girl came in, 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.