“To your mother,” the Baron repeated.  “You are right, my son.”

“The rooms over ours in our wing,” said Celestine, finishing her husband’s sentence.

“I am in your way, my dears?” said the Baron, with the mildness of a man who has judged himself.  “But do not be uneasy as to the future; you will have no further cause for complaint of your father; you will not see him till the time when you need no longer blush for him.”

He went up to Hortense and kissed her brow.  He opened his arms to his son, who rushed into his embrace, guessing his father’s purpose.  The Baron signed to Lisbeth, who came to him, and he kissed her forehead.  Then he went to his room, whither Adeline followed him in an agony of dread.

“My brother was quite right, Adeline,” he said, holding her hand.  “I am unworthy of my home life.  I dared not bless my children, who have behaved so nobly, but in my heart; tell them that I could only venture to kiss them; for the blessing of a bad man, a father who has been an assassin and the scourge of his family instead of its protector and its glory, might bring evil on them; but assure them that I shall bless them every day.—­As to you, God alone, for He is Almighty, can ever reward you according to your merits!—­I can only ask your forgiveness!” and he knelt at her feet, taking her hands and wetting them with his tears.

“Hector, Hector!  Your sins have been great, but Divine Mercy is infinite, and you may repair all by staying with me.—­Rise up in Christian charity, my dear—­I am your wife, and not your judge.  I am your possession; do what you will with me; take me wherever you go, I feel strong enough comfort you, to make life endurable to you, by the strength of my love, my care, and respect.—­Our children are settled in life; they need me no more.  Let me try to be an amusement to you, an occupation.  Let me share the pain of your banishment and of your poverty, and help to mitigate it.  I could always be of some use, if it were only to save the expense of a servant.”

“Can you forgive, my dearly-beloved Adeline?”

“Yes, only get up, my dear!”

“Well, with that forgiveness I can live,” said he, rising to his feet.  “I came back into this room that my children should not see their father’s humiliation.  Oh! the sight constantly before their eyes of a father so guilty as I am is a terrible thing; it must undermine parental influence and break every family tie.  So I cannot remain among you, and I must go to spare you the odious spectacle of a father bereft of dignity.  Do not oppose my departure Adeline.  It would only be to load with your own hand the pistol to blow my brains out.  Above all, do not seek me in my hiding-place; you would deprive me of the only strong motive remaining in me, that of remorse.”

Hector’s decisiveness silenced his dejected wife.  Adeline, lofty in the midst of all this ruin, had derived her courage from her perfect union with her husband; for she had dreamed of having him for her own, of the beautiful task of comforting him, of leading him back to family life, and reconciling him to himself.