Mathieu was expecting a happy event that very day, and he at first told the cashier that he could not possibly go with him; but when he had informed Marianne that he believed that something dreadful had happened to the Moranges, she bravely bade him render all assistance.  And then the two men drove, as Mathieu had anticipated, to the Rue du Rocher, and there found the hapless Valerie, not dying, but dead, and white, and icy cold.  Ah! the desperate, tearless grief of the husband, who fell upon his knees at the bedside, benumbed, annihilated, as if he also felt death’s heavy hand upon him.

For a moment, indeed, the young man anticipated exposure and scandal.  But when he hinted this to La Rouche she faintly smiled.  She had friends on many sides, it seemed.  She had already reported Valerie’s death at the municipal office, and the doctor, who would be sent to certify the demise, would simply ascribe it to natural causes.  Such was the usual practice!

Then Mathieu bethought himself of leading Morange away; but the other, still plunged in painful stupor, did not heed him.

“No, no, my friend, I pray you, say nothing,” he at last replied, in a very faint, distant voice, as though he feared to awaken the unfortunate woman who had fallen asleep forever.  “I know what I have done; I shall never forgive myself.  If she lies there, it is because I consented.  Yet I adored her, and never wished her aught but happiness.  I loved her too much, and I was weak.  Still, I was the husband, and when her madness came upon her I ought to have acted sensibly, and have warned and dissuaded her.  I can understand and excuse her, poor creature; but as for me, it is all over; I am a wretch; I feel horrified with myself.”

All his mediocrity and tenderness of heart sobbed forth in this confession of his weakness.  And his voice never gave sign of animation, never rose in a louder tone from the depths of his annihilated being, which would evermore be void.  “She wished to be gay, and rich, and happy,” he continued.  “It was so legitimate a wish on her part, she was so intelligent and beautiful!  There was only one delight for me, to content her tastes and satisfy her ambition.  You know our new flat.  We spent far too much money on it.  Then came that story of the Credit National and the hope of speedily rising to fortune.  And thus, when the trouble came, and I saw her distracted at the idea of having to renounce all her dreams, I became as mad as she was, and suffered her to do her will.  We thought that our only means of escaping from everlasting penury and drudgery was to evade Nature, and now, alas! she lies there.”

Morange’s lugubrious voice, never broken by a sob, never rising to violence, but sounding like a distant, monotonous, mournful knell, rent Mathieu’s heart.  He sought words of consolation, and spoke of Reine.

“Ah, yes!” said the other, “I am very fond of Reine.  She is so like her mother.  You will keep her at your house till to-morrow, won’t you?  Tell her nothing; let her play; I will acquaint her with this dreadful misfortune.  And don’t worry me, I beg you, don’t take me away.  I promise you that I will keep very quiet:  I will simply stay here, watching her.  Nobody will even hear me; I shan’t disturb any one.”