George's hands, for he has been making sand pits. I will go and change
my clothes; tell the maid to give the child a good washing."

And he went into his own room, and as soon as he got in he locked the
door, so as to be alone, quite alone. He was so used now to being abused
and badly treated, that he never thought himself safe, except when he
was locked in. He no longer ventured even to think, reflect and reason
with himself, unless he had guarded himself against her looks and
insinuations, by locking himself in. Having thrown himself into a chair,
in order to rest for a few minutes before he put on clean linen, he
remembered that Julie was beginning to be a fresh danger in the house.
She hated his wife, that was quite plain, but she hated his friend Paul
Limousin still more, who had continued to be the familiar and intimate
friend of the house, after having been the inseparable companion of his
bachelor days, which is very rare. It was Limousin who acted as a buffer
between his wife and himself, and who defended him ardently, and even
severely, against her undeserved reproaches, against crying scenes, and
against all the daily miseries of his existence.

But now for six months, Julie had constantly been saying things against
her mistress, and repeated twenty times a day: "If I were you, Monsieur,
I should not allow myself to be led by the nose like that. Well, well...
There, ... everyone according to his nature." And one day, she had even
ventured to be insolent to Henriette, who, however, merely said to her
husband, at night: "You know, the next time she speaks to me like that,
I shall turn her out of doors." But she, who feared nothing; seemed to
be afraid of the old servant, and Parent attributed her mildness to her
consideration for the old domestic who had brought him up, and who had
closed his mother's eyes. Now, however, it was finished, matters could
not go on like that much longer, and he was frightened at the idea of