"Maurice, where is your father? I command you to answer at once! I will hear nothing but the answer to that question."
Driven to extremity, Maurice replied, "My father is at Madeleine's!"
"Miserable boy! How did you dare to set my wishes at defiance? You shall repent this,—be sure you shall! How had you the audacity to fly in the face of my command?"
"I heard no commands on the subject," returned Maurice; "and if I had done so, my father's wishes would still have held the first place. As soon as we left the house he insisted upon going to Madeleine's; he would take no refusal; his affection for her is so strong that"—
"How dare you talk to me of his affection for that artful, designing girl, who is a disgrace to us all,—whose low machinations have placed her beneath my contempt? Henceforth, thank Heaven! we shall be out of the reach of her vile manœuvres."
This was beyond endurance. Maurice forgot everything but the insulting epithets applied to Madeleine, and said, with a dignity as imposing as Madame de Gramont's own had ever been,—
"My grandmother, never shall such language be applied to Madeleine again in my presence, by you or any one! Madeleine is not merely my cousin, she is the woman I love best and honor most in the world;—the woman who, if I ever marry, will become my wife."
"Never! never!" cried the countess, fiercely. "That shall never be, come what may!"
Maurice, recovering himself somewhat, went on,—
"It is upon a far sadder subject that I wish to speak to you,—I meant to break the news gently,—I hoped to spare you a severe shock, but you force me to come to the point at once. My dear father has had another seizure of the same nature as the two former."