figure, the farm of Presles. Ten years later, her capital disappeared through the failure of a banker at Melun. Through a horror which she had of mortgages, and to keep up appearances, which might be necessary in view of her son’s future, she had, when Père Roque presented himself again, listened to him once more. But now she was free from debt. In short, there was left them an income of about ten thousand francs, of which two thousand three hundred belonged to him — his entire patrimony.
“It isn’t possible!” exclaimed Frederick.
She nodded her head, as if to declare that it was perfectly possible.
But his uncle would leave him something?
That was by no means certain!
And they took a turn around the garden without exchanging a word. At last she pressed him to her heart, and in a voice choked with rising tears:
“Ah! my poor boy! I have had to give up my dreams!”
He seated himself on a bench in the shadow of the large acacia.
Her advice was that he should become a clerk to M. Prouharam, solicitor, who would assign over his office to him; if he increased its value, he might sell it again and find a good practice.
Frederick was no longer listening to her. He was gazing automatically across the hedge into the other garden opposite.
A little girl of about twelve with red hair happened to be there all alone. She had made earrings for herself with the berries of the service-tree. Her bodice, made of grey linen-cloth, allowed her shoulders, slightly gilded by the sun, to be seen. Her short white petticoat was spotted with the stains made by sweets; and there was, so to speak, the grace of a young wild animal about her entire person, at the same time, nervous and thin. Apparently, the presence of a stranger astonished her, for she had stopped abruptly with her watering-pot in her hand darting glances at him with her large bright eyes, which were of a limpid greenish-blue colour.
“That is M. Roque’s daughter,” said Madame Moreau. “He has just married his servant and legitimised the child that he had by her.”
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