"Dear wife, whatever may happen, you have done right; we must keep that cap. It alone can ever lead to any discovery of the parents of our little Francis. We should do wrong to part with it."
Gaspard knew well they had little to hope from the steward's clemency; still he would not seek to please him or his wife at the risk of injuring their adopted child.
Time passed on, but a few days remained in which to make up the amount of the taxes, and Gaspard had not a third of the sum required, he knew not how to obtain it.
Meanwhile the steward's wife exerted all her influence to exasperate her husband against Gaspard, relating what had occurred when she was driven to take shelter in his cottage, and falsely accusing Katherine of insolence and rudeness. She wickedly resolved to wreak her vengeance on the unhappy family, and to obtain by force what she could not possess herself of in any justifiable way.
She succeeded but too well,—her husband, ever ready to exercise his arbitrary power, summoned Gaspard to pay the taxes due, threatening at the same time to seize his goods if he did not pay at the given time.
The day before the one appointed arrived, and at the last moment poor Gaspard set out to endeavour to borrow even a part of the sum required from a farmer with whom he had had some dealings. He went with a heavy heart, and with but faint hopes of success; still he would not leave a chance untried.
Night came, and Gaspard did not appear!
Poor Katherine knew not what to think.
Had he met with any one likely to help him, or had he fallen ill whilst seeking for assistance?
The night was passed in too great anxiety for the poor woman to be able to sleep, and she anxiously watched for the return of day.