"I will directly," said the lapidary; "only let me first get mother back to bed. Come! come! what are you meddling with those stones for? Let them alone, I say!" cried he to the old woman, whose whole attention seemed riveted upon a splendid ruby, the bright scintillations of which had so charmed the poor idiot that she was trying by every possible means to gain possession of it. "There's a pretty thing! there, there!" replied the woman, pointing with vehement gestures to the prize she so ardently coveted. "I shall be angry in a few minutes," exclaimed Morel, speaking in a loud voice to terrify his mother-in-law into submission, and gently pushing back the hand she advanced to seize her desired treasure. "Oh, Morel! Morel!" murmured Madeleine, "I am parching, dying with thirst. How can you be so cruel as to refuse me a little water?" "But how can I at present? I must not allow mother to meddle with these stones,--perhaps to lose me a diamond, as she did a year ago; and God alone knows the wretchedness and misery it cost us,--ay, may still occasion us. Ah, that unfortunate loss of the diamond, what have we not suffered by it!" As the poor lapidary uttered these words, he passed his hand over his aching brow with a desponding air, and said to one of the children: "Felix, give your mother something to drink. You are awake, and can attend to her." "No, no," exclaimed Madeleine; "he will take cold. I will wait." "Oh, mother," said the boy, rising, "never mind me. I shall be quite as warm up as I am in this _paillasse_." "Come, will you let the things alone?" cried Morel, in a threatening tone, to the idiot woman, who kept bending over the precious stones and trying to seize them, spite of all his efforts to move her from the table. "Mother," called out Felix, "what shall I do? The water in the pitcher is frozen quite hard." "Then break the ice," murmured Madeleine. "It is so thick, I can't," answered the boy. "Morel!" exclaimed Madeleine, in a querulous and impatient tone, "since there is nothing but water for me to drink, let me at least have a draught of that! You are letting me die with thirst!" "God of heaven grant me patience!" cried the unfortunate man. "How can I leave your mother to lose and destroy these stones? Pray let me manage her first." But the lapidary found it no easy matter to get rid of the idiot, who, beginning to feel irritated at the constant opposition she met with, gave utterance to her displeasure in a sort of hideous growl. "Call her, wife!" said Morel. "She will attend to you sometimes." "Mother! mother!" called Madeleine, "go to bed, and be good, and then you shall have some of that nice coffee you are so fond of!"