"It is a matter of common kindness for my husband to thank this young workman for some services he was able to perform in the interest of his election."
"Allow me, dear mother, to tell you that father does not look at things as you do; for last Sunday he invited Monsieur John to dinner with us, calling him my friend. Father repeated to him several times that, thanks to the progress of the revolution, privileges of birth would be soon wiped out, and that equality and fraternity would reign among men."
"Well, Charlotte! And suppose equality were to reign among men—what conclusion do you draw from that?"
"Monsieur John Lebrenn being the equal of my father, bonds of friendship could exist between them."
"I shall admit, for the moment, that an ironsmith's apprentice might think himself the equal of an attorney at the bar of Paris. What do you conclude therefrom?"
"I hoped you would have understood," stammered the young girl in confusion, and more embarrassed than ever at seeing her mother so far from suspecting the nature of the confidence she was about to make.
Suddenly a dull and heavy roar, prolonged and repeated from echo to echo, shook and rattled the windows of the room.
"What noise is that!" cried Madam Desmarais with a start, and raising her head.
Crash upon crash, more distinct than the first, rattled again the windows and even the doors of the dwelling. At that instant in rushed one of Madam Desmarais's maids, screaming out with affright:
"Madam, Oh, madam! It is the cannon! It is the roar of artillery!"