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Updated: May 25, 2025
He saw this, so did his wife, but neither seemed to care much; they were buoyed up by a false hope, always waiting for something unexpected to turn up, which would rescue them from this abyss. Mrs. Soher was Mr. Rougeant's sister. They were the only children of the late Charles Rougeant, of "Les Marches."
Now, here I am, maimed, afflicted, weighed down with grief." He reached his home a wreck. A few days afterwards, poor Tom's body was buried in the churchyard. From that day, life at the "Prenoms" was completely changed. Mr. Soher examined himself and his surroundings. He saw that he was drifting towards bankruptcy. He resolved he did more he went to work, to try and avert the catastrophe.
"Now, ma'am, here's your son; he's had a glass too much, but he'll be right enough after a bit o' sleep;" and so saying, the driver opened the carriage door while Mrs. Soher approached, lantern in hand. Her daughter followed her. They came close to the driver, who stood stock-still, his mouth half open, his whole body trembling like an aspen leaf.
Soher and her daughter were having a fine time of it. "Ah! she is a well-bred girl; to interrupt me like that, to answer and lecture me in that way," said Adèle's aunt, then she added: "Fancy that little brat, to try and give me a lesson about my duty towards my neighbour. If she has enough to do to look after herself, let her do it; for my part I'll do as I like.
Of course, he put all the blame on the misfortunes which he had encountered. Once, and only once, his father tried timidly to rebuke him. "No," he said, "there is nothing for me to do but to drown my sorrow. Welcome ruin." "Why not turn a new leaf?" pleaded Mr. Soher. "Bah!" he replied as he walked away, "what's the use! no; good-bye to everything."
How had Tom Soher happened to be lying before the threshold of "Les Marches?" We shall see. That same evening, he was with a few of his sort, drinking at the "Forest Arms." He was more than half-intoxicated, when, without a word, he left the bar-room. "Where are you going?" shouted his comrades. "Bring him back," said some. "Let him go," said the others.
Then came her twenty-four year old daughter Amelia, the only member of the family with which the reader is not acquainted; and Tom, grown into a lazy, bad-tempered and slouching young man. Old Mrs. Soher was dead. The home at the "Prenoms" was not a bright one. Mr. Soher did not believe in education. He and his wife were often absent from home in the evening.
He did not tell his father that this same evening he had entered a public-house for the first time. The days went by. Mr. Soher and his spouse continued to attend to their meetings and their son continued to go out, returning boldly after his parents had come in. One evening, he came in drunk. Then his father became really alarmed.
As the driver approached the "Prenoms," he whistled gaily. He little dreamt of the surprise which awaited him. He drove straight through the open gate into the farmyard. When Mrs. Soher heard the sound of the carriage wheels, she went to the door of the house, opened it and said: "Here he comes again, the poor inebriate."
He hastily retreated farther away and watched the trio. He could easily see them without being seen. The light that came from inside the house, and that from the candle, shone full on the group. He saw Mr. Rougeant pick up the prostrate figure, set the man on his feet, and, after having shut the gate after him, return inside. This man, who walked with such an unsteady gait, was Tom Soher.
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