“Is that your opinion?” asked father. “Don’t you feel how venomous, and how dishonouring to me it all is? Have not you always been well treated here? Whose wish was it to sit at the end of the table? Who took possession of the tower chamber in spite of all we could say? Which of us has ever been lacking in respect to you? When has any one neglected to care for you most tenderly and deferentially? Of whom, of what, do you complain? Father, I entreat you,--tell me; this is a grave matter.” Entreaty followed entreaty, hurrying one upon another, in a voice which gave them a pathetic intonation that thrilled me from head to foot. The obscure article suddenly became clear to me, and I grasped its entire significance. Some one was accusing my father of harshness to grandfather. The scene of the abdication rose up before me, and the morning in which I had borne a part by carrying the pile of _Limping Messengers of Berne and Vevey_. “I am not complaining,” said grandfather; “I have never complained.” “And of what could you have complained? This house has continued to be yours. I have taken upon myself only the duties and expenses which were a burden to you. But these calumnies have not been invented.” “My dear Michel, all these stories bore me to death. I don’t read the newspapers, and get along very comfortably without them. I advise you to follow my example.” “Because it is not you who are attacked. Because I shall never permit any one to attack you. This attack upon me comes from the Café of the Navigators. I am sure that you still go there, though I have informed you that it is the headquarters of our enemies. But you place in those people all the confidence that you refuse to me.” “As for that, I go where I please and I see whom I like.” “You are free, father, without the slightest doubt. But in a family all the members stand or fall together. Whoever aims at you strikes me. Whoever defames me insults you.” “I have no such narrow views as to the family. I have never opposed you; do the same to me.” At that moment father saw me through the half-open door, and a suspicion must have crossed his mind, for he cut the discussion short, and pointing to me said, “I hope you never take that child there!” “Where, pray?” “To the Café of the Navigators.” And turning to me father added in a tone which admitted of no reply, “Go away!” So that I did not hear the reply.