characteristic of frugality had assumed the shape of avarice in his
nature. He was, too, a petty tyrant and a cruel husband and father
when under the influence of absinthe, a state in which he was usually
to be found.

Berene was an only child, and her mother, whom she worshipped, said,
when dying, "Take care of your poor father, Berene. Do everything
you can to make him happy. Never desert him."

Berene was fourteen at that time. She had never been at school, but
she had been taught to read and write both French and English, for
her mother was an American girl who had been disinherited by her
grandparents, with whom she lived, for eloping with her French
teacher--Pierre Dumont. Rheumatism and absinthe turned the French
professor into a shopkeeper before Berene was born. The grandparents
had died without forgiving their granddaughter, and, much as the
unhappy woman regretted her foolish marriage, she remained a patient
and devoted wife to the end of her life, and imposed the same
patience and devotion when dying on her daughter.

At sixteen, Berene was asked to sacrifice herself on the altar of
marriage to a man three times her age; one Jacques Letellier, who
offered generously to take the young girl as payment for a debt owed
by his convivial comrade, M. Dumont. Berene wept and begged
piteously to be spared this horrible sacrifice of her young life,
whereupon Pierre Dumont seized his razor and threatened suicide as
the other alternative from the dishonour of debt, and Berene in
terror yielded her word and herself the next day to the debasing
mockery of marriage with a depraved old gambler and roue.