Madeleine was so overwhelmed with grief and anxiety that Louis was filled with compassion. He motioned for her to be seated on a lounge before his desk, and then said:
"Well, my good Madeleine, what has happened? Tell me your troubles. If in my power to remove them, it shall soon be done. What can I do for you?"
"You know Durand, the overseer?"
"Yes, yes!..." said Louis, frowning with the air of a man who knows more than he expresses.
"He and my father have become intimate, I know not how or why, within a few weeks—since you stopped coming to our house. He often came before the inundation, and paid me a thousand absurd compliments. I made no reply to his silly speeches, but they seemed to please my parents. The first moment I set eyes on that man, he inspired me with fear. He looks so bold—so false! And besides...."
"Besides what? Madeleine, I insist on your telling me everything."
"Well, he tried every way to make us believe you are.... I dare not tell you...."
"Go on, child. Nothing would astonish me from Durand. I know he hates me."
"He says you are a hypocrite, a—Jesuit, a dangerous man. He told my father you were going to leave the mill, and seemed to boast of being the cause of it."
"I suspected it," said Louis to himself. "Adams was only Durand's tool. Oh! what deceit!"