although she was faint with hunger. That was how she had dined, with
Limousin, if it could be called dining, for they had only had some soup
and half a fowl, as they were in a great hurry to get back, and Parent
replied simply: "Well, you were quite right. I am not finding fault with
you."

Then Limousin, who had not spoken till then, and who had been half
hidden behind Henriette, came forward, and put out his hand, saying:
"Are you very well?" Parent took his hand, and shaking it gently,
replied: "Yes, I am very well." But the young woman had felt a reproach
in her husband's last words. "Finding fault! ... Why do you speak of
finding fault? ... One might think that you meant to imply something."
"Not at all," he replied, by way of excuse. "I simply meant, that I was
not at all anxious although you were late, and that I did not find fault
with you for it." She, however, took the high hand, and tried to find a
pretext for a quarrel. "Although I was late? ... One might really think
that it was one o'clock in the morning, and that I spent my nights away
from home." "Certainly not, my dear. I said _late_, because I could find
no other word. You said you should be back at half past six, and you
returned at half past eight. That was surely being late! I understand it
perfectly well ... I am not at all surprised ... even. But ... but ... I
can hardly use any other word." "But you pronounce them, as if I had
been out all night." "Oh! no, ... oh! no ..."

She saw that he would yield on every point, and she was going into her
own room, when at last she noticed that George was screaming, and then
she asked, with some feeling: "Whatever is the matter with the child?"
"I told you, that Julie had been rather unkind to him?" "What has the
wretch been doing to him?" "Oh! Nothing much. She gave him a push, and
he fell down."