Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 8, 2025
Madame Aubain looked over her accounts and soon discovered his numerous embezzlements; sales of wood which had been concealed from her, false receipts, etc. Furthermore, he had an illegitimate child, and entertained a friendship for "a person in Dozulé." These base actions affected her very much.
So Paul was sent away and bravely said good-bye to them all, for he was glad to go to live in a house where he would have boy companions. Madame Aubain resigned herself to the separation from her son because it was unavoidable. Virginia brooded less and less over it.
But, one evening, when she returned home after an errand, she met M. Boupart's coach in front of the door; M. Boupart himself was standing in the vestibule and Madame Aubain was tying the strings of her bonnet. "Give me my foot-warmer, my purse and my gloves; and be quick about it," she said. Virginia had congestion of the lungs; perhaps it was desperate.
Already at the threshold, she caught sight of Virginia lying on her back, with clasped hands, her mouth open and her head thrown back, beneath a black crucifix inclined toward her, and stiff curtains which were less white than her face. Madame Aubain lay at the foot of the couch, clasping it with her arms and uttering groans of agony. The Mother Superior was standing on the right side of the bed.
And shrugging her shoulders, Madame Aubain continued to pace the floor as if to say: "I did not think of it. Besides, I do not care, a cabin-boy, a pauper! but my daughter what a difference! just think of it! Felicite, although she had been reared roughly, was very indignant. Then she forgot about it. It appeared quite natural to her that one should lose one's head about Virginia.
As if to divert her mind, he reproduced for her the tick-tack of the spit in the kitchen, the shrill cry of the fish-vendors, the saw of the carpenter who had a shop opposite, and when the door-bell rang, he would imitate Madame Aubain: "Félicité! go to the front door."
But he had the tiresome tricks of biting his perch, pulling his feathers out, scattering refuse and spilling the water of his bath. Madame Aubain grew tired of him and gave him to Felicite for good. She undertook his education, and soon he was able to repeat: "Pretty boy! Your servant, sir! I salute you, Marie!"
The baggage was sent the day before on Liébard's cart. On the following morning, he brought around two horses, one of which had a woman's saddle with a velveteen back to it, while on the crupper of the other was a rolled shawl that was to be used for a seat. Madame Aubain mounted the second horse, behind Liébard.
Madame Aubain had married a comely youth without any money, who died in the beginning of 1809, leaving her with two young children and a number of debts.
The sea glittered brightly in the sun and was as smooth as a mirror, and so calm that they could scarcely distinguish its murmur; sparrows chirped joyfully and the immense canopy of heaven spread over it all. Madame Aubain brought out her sewing, and Virginia amused herself by braiding reeds; Felicite wove lavender blossoms, while Paul was bored and wished to go home.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking