When supper-time came Marguerite went to tell him that the meal was on the table, but David bade the servant say to Madame Bastien that, not feeling very well, would she kindly excuse him for not coming down as usual? Frederick, too, refused to leave his room, so Marie, for the first time since Henri David's arrival, spent the evening alone. This loneliness caused a feeling of profound depression, and she was assailed by all sorts of gloomy presentiments. When she went to her room about eleven o'clock, her son was asleep, or pretended to be asleep, so sadly and silently she slipped on a wrapper and let down her long hair, preparatory to brushing it for the night, when old Marguerite, coming in as usual to inquire if her mistress wanted anything before retiring, remarked, as she was about to withdraw: "I forgot to ask you if André could have the horse and cart to go to Pont Brillant to-morrow morning, madame?" "Yes," answered Marie, abstractedly. "You know why André has got to go to the village, don't you, madame?" "No," replied Marie, with the same deeply absorbed air. "Why, it is to take M. David's things. He is going away, it seems." "Great Heavens!" exclaimed Madame Bastien, letting the mass of hair she had been holding fall upon her shoulders, and, turning suddenly to the old servant, "What are you saying, Marguerite?" "I say that the gentleman is going away, madame." "What gentleman?" "Why, M. David, M. Frederick's new tutor, and it is a pity, for--" "He is going away?" repeated Madame Bastien, interrupting Marguerite in such a strangely altered voice, and with such an expression of grief and dismay, that the servant gazed at her wonderingly. "There must be some mistake. How do you know that M. David is going away?" "He is sending his things away." "Who told you so?" "André." "How does he know?" "Why, yesterday M. David asked André if he could get a horse and cart to send some trunks to Pont-Brillant in a day or two. André told him yes; so I thought I ought to tell you that André intended to use the horse to-morrow, that is all." "M. David has become discouraged. He abandons the task as an impossibility. The embarrassment and regret he feels are the cause of his holding himself so sedulously aloof all day. My son is lost!" This was Marie's first and only thought. And, wild with despair, forgetting her disordered toilet and the lateness of the hour, she rushed up-stairs and burst into David's room, leaving Marguerite stupefied with amazement. CHAPTER XXIII. When Marie presented herself so unexpectedly before him, David was seated at his little table in the attitude of meditation. At the sight of the young woman, pale, weeping, her hair dishevelled, and in the disorder of her night-dress, he rose abruptly, and, turning as pale as Marie herself, at the fear that some dreadful event had taken place, said: "Madame, what has happened? Has Frederick--"