they kept a café, situated on the Place d'Armes.

The whole family was now assembled in the same district, a few miles only
one from another: but Henri was really its head. Having heard that a
quarrel had arisen between his brother and his mother, he wrote to Frédéric
in reprimand; gently scolding him and begging him to set matters right,
"even if all the wrongs were not on his side."

"My father, in one of his letters, complains that in spite of your nearness
you have not yet been to see them. I know very well there is some reason
for sulking; but what matter? Give it up: forget everything; do your best
to put an end to all these petty and ugly estrangements. You will do so,
won't you? I count on it, for the happiness of all." (2/11.)

He was their arbitrator, their adviser, their oracle, their bond of union.

With all this, he was ready to attempt the two examinations which were to
decide his future. Very shortly, at Montpellier, he passed almost
successively, at an interval of only a few months the examinations for both
his baccalauréats; and then the two licentiate examinations in mathematics
and physical science.

While he was ardently studying for these examinations, sorrow for the first
time knocked at his door. His first-born fell suddenly ill, and in a few
days died. On this occasion all his ardent spirituality asserted itself,
though in stricken accents, in the letter which he wrote to his brother to
announce his loss:

"After a few days of a marked improvement, which made me think he was
saved, two large teeth were cut...and in three days a dreadful fever took