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It seemed that nothing was easier than not to commit the folly of yielding, and yet such was the persistence of the efforts that were united against him, that he asked himself if, one day, he would not be led to obey them in spite of himself. Phillis, Nougarede, Madame Cormier. Now, whence would come a new attack?
"It is I who am obliged to Madame Cormier. If the word were not barbarous, I should say that her illness has been a good thing for me." To turn the conversation, and because he wished to speak to Phillis alone, he approached her table and talked with her about her work. Saniel then gave Madame Cormier some advice, and rose to go.
And yet when he returned home in the evening she told him that her mother was not well, and begged him to examine her. This examination proved that Madame Cormier was in her usual health; but she complained that her breath failed her during the day she had feared syncope. "If you are willing," Phillis said, "I will sleep near mamma. I am afraid of not hearing her at night, and she is suffering."
"Because you were too unhappy, my poor boy!" Madame Cormier said, whose maternal heart was moved by this cry. "Am I happier here, or shall I be to-morrow? What does this to-morrow, full of uncertainty and dangers, hold for us?" "Why do you insist that it has only dangers?" Phillis asked, in a conciliating and caressing tone. "You always expect the good."
Hearing steps, she turned her head and instantly rose, but she restrained the cry-the name that was on her lips. "Mamma," she said, "here is Doctor Saniel." Madame Cormier entered, walking with difficulty; for, if Saniel had put her on her feet, he had not given her the suppleness or the grace of youth.
We will make her comfortable; and although my nature is not very tender, I will try to replace him from whom she is separated. It will be a happiness to her to see you happy." For a long time he enlarged upon what he wished, feeling a sentiment of satisfaction in talking of what he would do for Madame Cormier, in whom at this time he saw the mother of Florentin more than that of Phillis.
Her anguish was so much the greater, because he certainly avoided looking at her. Why? She had done nothing, and could find nothing with which to reproach herself. At this moment the door opened, and a man still young, tall, with a curled beard, entered the room. "My son," Madame Cormier said. "My brother Florentin, of whom we have spoken so often," Phillis said. Florentin!
Balzajette said that Madame Dammauville would soon be on her feet, and one might have faith in his word; Florentin would be saved, and there was nothing to do but to let things go on as they were going. Phillis, Madame Cormier, Nougarede, Florentin himself, whom the Mazas cell had reconciled neither with hope nor with providential justice, were all delighted with this idea.
Then there were long silences that Madame Cormier interrupted by going to the kitchen to look after her dinner, that had been ready since two o'clock. Not knowing what to say or do in the presence of Saniel's sombre face and preoccupation, which she could not explain, she asked him if he had dined. "Not yet."
Ordinarily he was tender and affectionate to his mother-in-law, with attention and deference which in some ways seemed affected, as if he were so by will rather than by natural sentiment; but at these times he forgot this tenderness, and treated her with hardness so unjust, that more than once Madame Cormier spoke of it to her daughter.
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