Without telling him what she was going to do with it, Dionysia had asked
him for twenty thousand francs, and he had given them to her, however
big the sum might be everywhere, however immense in a small town like
Sauveterre. He was quite ready to give her as much again, or twice as
much, without asking any more questions.

But for Dionysia to leave her home one evening at six o'clock, and not
to return to it till the next morning--

"That I cannot permit," he repeated.

But for Dionysia to spend a night in the Sauveterre jail, in order to
have an interview with her betrothed, who was accused of incendiarism
and murder; to remain there all night, alone, absolutely at the mercy of
the jailer, a hard, coarse, covetous man--

"That I will never permit," exclaimed the old gentleman once more.

Dionysia remained calm, and let the storm pass. When her grandfather
became silent, she said,--

"But if I must?"

M. de Chandore shrugged his shoulders. She repeated in a louder tone,--

"If I must, in order to decide Jacques to abandon this system that will
ruin him, to induce him to speak before the investigation is completed?"

"That is not your business, my child," said the old gentleman.