Give me your hand." It was a happy moment for these two men, and such a one as they had scarcely ever experienced in their lives, restrained as they had been by cold etiquette.

The count felt proud of his son, and recognised in him himself at that age.

For a long time their hands remained clasped, without either being able to utter a word.
At last, M.de Commarin resumed his seat.
"I must ask you to leave me, Albert," he said kindly.

"I must be alone to reflect, to try and accustom myself to this terrible blow." And, as the young man closed the door, he added, as if giving vent to his inmost thoughts, "If he, in whom I have placed all my hope, deserts me, what will become of me?
And what will the other one be like ?" Albert's features, when he left the count's study, bore traces of the violent emotions he had felt during the interview.

The servants whom he met noticed it the more, as they had heard something of the quarrel.
"Well," said an old footman who had been in the family thirty years, "the count has had another unhappy scene with his son.