"Follow us, my son! Your uncle and I must speak with you."
"Father, please let me know where I shall meet you. I shall place myself at your orders at sunset."
"Follow me instantly!" replied Salaun imperiously. "Come on the spot! What we have to say to you will brook no delay."
"It is hard for me to disobey you, father—but at this moment I can not accompany you," answered Nominoë, stepping towards Bertha. "I can not leave the lady alone—later I shall obey you. I shall go to whatever place you may please to appoint."
"You dare resist your father's orders—unhappy boy!"
"Father, do not insist—it is useless—I will and must stay here."
"Heaven and earth!" cried Salaun, beside himself with rage at his son's refusal—"man without faith and without honor!"
"Oh! Enough! For mercy's sake, father!" retorted Nominoë in a hollow voice, turning pale with both pain and anger at hearing himself insulted by his own father in the presence of Mademoiselle Plouernel.
But she, taking the young man's hand, said to him in a low and suppliant voice:
"Obey your father!"