Madame Delong received intelligence from Germany which caused her the greatest affliction. Her husband had been dangerously wounded, and she immediately set off to attend on him, deeply grieved at the necessity of leaving her son to his own discretion, as it were, with a person who was incapable of maintaining any authority over him.
Being also perfectly well aware that whilst Madame Ballier had to command, and Marianne to obey, there would be little peace in the household, we may easily imagine what were her parting admonitions, and what the promises and good resolutions made to conform to them. But, scarcely was she out of sight, when Madame Ballier, eager to take possession of her authority, positively exacted of Marianne that the soup tureen, which from time immemorial had been placed on the sideboard, should for the future be put away in the closet, and that, contrary to the practice hitherto observed, the glasses should be rinsed before the decanters. From this moment all hope of agreement was at an end; and when Louis returned home to dinner, he found Marianne in a state of the greatest excitement. "Master Louis," she said, "this will never do; that woman will drive me out of my senses. I tell you, Master Louis, we can never go on in this way."
"Louis," said Madame Ballier, very composedly, to her nephew, when he came to take his place at the dining-table, "I beg you for the future to be more punctual to the time."
Louis looked at his watch, then at the time-piece, and was much surprised to find that they did not agree; he had set them together in the morning, and now perceived that, without any intimation to him, Madame Ballier had advanced the time-piece after his departure. He showed his watch, and said coolly, but not without some intention of annoying, "This is the time by Monsieur Lebeau's clock, which is the best in the town, and which everybody follows since the town clock has been out of order."
Madame Ballier replied, pettishly, that Monsieur Lebeau's clock went like his head, and that the house clock was the one to which he must conform.
"To render that possible," said Louis, "it ought not to be altered every moment without necessity."
Silence ensued till about the middle of dinner, when Madame Ballier said to her nephew, "I hope, Louis, that you do not intend to take advantage of your mother's absence to run about and idle away your time, instead of attending to your studies."
"Run about! Where, aunt?" inquired Louis, greatly astonished, for he was noted for his exactitude in the performance of his duties.
"Why, to Monsieur Lebeau's, for example."
"My mother has given me permission to go there," replied Louis, in a careless tone.