Julien continued to scold his mother, who began to weep afresh. Marcel, observing Madame d'Estrelle's stupefaction, led her aside and gave her in three words the key to the mystery, and with it tangible proof, so to speak, of the young artist's ardent passion. She was profoundly affected at first, but she recovered her presence of mind and summoned all her strength to turn aside the blow which threatened the family. [Illustration 03: _A DISTURBED CONFERENCE_ _Julien roughly enjoined silence on Marcel, grasping his arm and whispering_: "_For God's sake, hush! there is somebody outside listening!_"] "Leave it to me," she said to Madame Thierry, striving to be cheerful; "I take everything on myself. It was I who committed the sin, it is for me to repair it." "The sin! What sin?" cried Julien. "Yes, yes, I took a fancy to that flower and asked you for it! No, no! what am I saying? I am losing my mind! It was I who broke it, a foolish caprice--in a fit of absent-mindedness! You were not here. I am awkward, I can't see very well--However, I will explain it all to your uncle. _Mon Dieu!_ what do you expect that he will do? He won't beat me. I will humbly beg his forgiveness; he is not so hard-hearted!" "Alas!" said Madame Thierry, "unfortunately he is very hard-hearted when he is injured, and if he knew that Julien had committed this sacrilege----" "So it was really Julien who did it?" said Marcel, utterly dumbfounded. "This is very strange!" "Well, yes, it was I, I alone!" replied Julien, vehemently, "and there is nothing strange about it." "Yes indeed there is!" said Marcel in an undertone, his eyes suddenly opened to the secret of the catastrophe. "You are a little too mad, my boy, and your heart must be as fickle as your brain to sacrifice your mother's future and your own in this way; to say nothing of the fact that Madame d'Estrelle is too kind, and that she would have done much better to teach you your place." "Hush, Marcel, hush!" said Julien, "you are talking nonsense; you don't understand." "I understand too well," replied Marcel, "and, on my word, I agree with your mother now, I say that you are losing your wits!" This dialogue in undertones was carried on in the window-recess, while the two women stood together near the vase in which Madame Thierry was trying to replant the stalk of the beheaded lily, talking at random, and saying nothing which had the slightest meaning; for her greatest source of perturbation was not the _Antonia_, but the storm of passion which had caused its destruction. Suddenly Julien, who was in the habit of handling the curtain and examining the slit through which he looked into the garden, roughly enjoined silence on Marcel, grasping his arm and whispering: "For God's sake, hush! there is somebody outside listening!" IV