The day following that in which Iris had held the conversation with her mistress we have just related, M. de Brévannes, irritated by the all-absorbing passion which engrossed his thoughts, as well as by many other causes of extreme anxiety, had resumed his brutal treatment of his wife, whose presence became more and more insupportable to him, persuaded as he was that once freed from his marriage-bonds, he should have both more leisure and better facilities for completing his affair with Madame de Hansfeld, even on the morning of the very day of which we are speaking he had compelled his poor suffering wife to endure a fresh scene of violence and abuse. The time was past when Bertha would have received these reproaches with floods of bitter tears; on the contrary, her heart smote her for finding such ready consolation in the hope and prospect of finding Arnold as usual awaiting her arrival at her father's humble but happy home. Banishing from her mind all recollection of the unkindness she had just experienced, Bertha hastened with eager delight to refresh her worn and wearied spirits in the society of the two persons dearest to her upon earth. Great was the joy of old Pierre at the unexpected entrance of his daughter, the following day having been the one arranged between them, when last they parted, for her next visit. "Welcome, my child!" cried the old man, tenderly caressing her, "this is a pleasure I had not ventured to promise myself before to-morrow; but I see--I see--some fresh outbreak of cruel tyranny. Well! never mind, since the brutal treatment of that man who daily cares less and less about you enables you to visit your old father more frequently, I find my dislike to him considerably decrease, and if you are not happy, at least you are no longer absolutely wretched; that is something towards a cure, and I do not despair of seeing you again happy. But what an old fool I am to let you know all the foolish fancies that come into my head at times!" "No, no, dear father! it is very good and kind of you to try and cheer me up by hopes for the future; tell me, then, what you venture to expect may one day happen to render us both happy?" "Why, my beloved daughter, it is this, that, finding your husband allow you uncontrolled permission to pass half your time with me, I live in hopes that he may be induced to grant you permission to reside here entirely." "Oh! no, father: I dare not think of such a thing! he knows too well what happiness it would give me."