“What a frightful visitation, my dear!”
But Théophile was in a state of great excitement. “So, now,” said he, without even lowering his voice, “when one’s father is dying one only hears of it through the charcoal dealer. Did you, then, require time to rifle his pockets?”
Duveyrier rose up indignantly. But Clotilde motioned him aside, whilst she answered her brother very gently:
“Unhappy man! is our father’s death agony not even sacred to you? Look at him; behold your work! yes, it is you who have brought him to this, by refusing to pay your overdue rent.”
Valérie burst out laughing.
“Come,” said she, “you are not speaking seriously.”
“What! not speaking seriously!” resumed Clotilde, filled with indignation. “You know how much he liked to collect his rents. Had you really wished to kill him, you could not have acted in a better way.”
And they came to high words; they reciprocally accused one another of wishing to lay hands on the estate, when Auguste, still sullen and calm, requested them to recollect where they were.
“Keep quiet! You have plenty of time. It is not decent at such a moment.”
Then the others, admitting the justice of this observation, settled themselves around the bed. A deep silence ensued; again nothing but the death rattle was heard in the moist atmosphere of the room. Berthe and Auguste were at the dying man’s feet; Valérie and Théophile, being the last comers, had been obliged to seat themselves at the table, some distance off; whilst Clotilde was at the head of the bed, with her husband behind her; and she had pushed her son Gustave, whom the old man adored, close up against the edge of the mattresses. They now all looked at one another, without exchanging a word. But the bright eyes, the tightly-compressed lips, told of the hidden thoughts, the surmises full of anxiety and irritation, which were passing in the pale-faced heads of those next-of-kin, with their red and swollen eyelids. The sight of the collegian, so close to the bed, especially exasperated the two young couples; for it was self-evident that the Duveyriers were counting on Gustave’s presence to influence the grandfather’s affections if he recovered consciousness.