"Arrive! When?"
"To-day."
Frederick's face turned scarlet, and, springing up abruptly, he stamped angrily upon the floor, exclaiming:
"I will not have any tutor, mother; do you hear me?"
"But listen, my child, I beg of you."
"I will not have a tutor, I tell you. Send him away; it is useless to take him. I will serve him exactly as I did the other."
Up to this time Madame Bastien's manner toward her son had always been tender, almost entreating, but realising that she must show no weakness now, she replied, in a firm though affectionate tone:
"I have decided that it will be for your interest to have a tutor, my son, so I feel sure you will respect my wishes."
"You will see if I do."
"If you mean by that, that you hope to wear your new tutor out by your obstinacy and ill-temper, you will make a great mistake; first, because you will grieve me very much, and, secondly, because M. David, for that is his name, is not a person who will be easily disheartened. This is sufficiently proven by the fact that your anger and impertinence only served to arouse his commiseration."