Robespierre found the family so bright and affable that his reappearance was not embarrassing. He had but to explain vaguely the cause of his indisposition, which was quite gone. Oh, yes! every one could see that! Why, he looked so well, so full of life! What a good thing it was, after all, to have had a day's rest!
But this conspiracy of smiles, which had put him at his ease so quickly, soon began to irritate him. The whole family racked their brains to find scraps of news and items of interest outside the one all-absorbing subject of his thoughts. When the dessert came on, however, Robespierre himself turned the conversation to the carefully avoided theme, and asked their candid opinion of the previous day's fête.
As they resorted to evasions, giving a host of details to escape the main question, he asked them plainly what they thought of his personal success.
"It was gigantic!" said Madame Duplay.
"Ah, that's a woman's answer—a mother's!" he replied sadly.
And longing for sympathy, he opened his heart to them; he had been disappointed in his dearest hopes; everything must begin over again. Lebas interrupted him.
"You exaggerate, I think."
Robespierre replied calmly—
"I am so far from exaggerating that I have passed the whole day in preparing my revenge."
Here they were interrupted by a knock at the door, and young Duplay rose to open it.