from the house, I scarcely dare contemplate what
might have happened. I insist that you accompany
cne home on the instant!'
Jouse was a placid man as a rule, but his nerves
at the moment were badly on edge, for Marie had
been through a dangerous confinement. Thus the
element of fear may have been to blame for the sudden
and unexpected fury with which he now turned and
upbraided his sister.
Imbecile!' he bellowed, Tou come to my home and
make a noise likely to wake up the dead when my wife,
who has suffered the tortures of the damned, has only
just managed to get off to sleep; yes, and you wake up
our ailing baby. Could you not have come and told
me discreetly? Ah, and you save your Jan but leave
Christophe. Who can say that Mireio has not got
the rage? Yet you leave my son alone with her in the
room! Did you bring Christophe with you as you
should have done? Ah, no, for you only think of
saving your skin, and the dirty skin of your miserable
Jan. Dieu, what a woman I have for a sister!3
He paused, ransacking his brain for fresh in-
sults, but before he had found them his sister was
ready.
CI would rather a mad dog than you;5 she told him,
ca nice scandal you make rousing up the whole street
— already Eusebe hangs out of his window! It is
not I who wake up your wife and baby, but you with
all this indecent shouting. And if Marie has borne
you a sickly child it is surely your doing who are no
longer young and are probably past the time for
strong breeding. As for Mireio, is it my fault that you
keep a savage and verminous bitch who threatens to
kill me in my own bedroom? As for Christophe,
had I lifted him out of the cot Mireio would surely
have torn my throat. It is you and not I who shall
deal with Mireio!5
51