Where could she have found time to occupy herself with a baby?
Business engrossed her attention; she had no leisure to amuse herself with trifles.

Maternity seemed to her a luxury for rich women; she had her fortune to make.

In the struggle against the difficulties attending the enterprise she had begun, she had not had time to look around her and perceive that her home was lonely.

She worked from morning till night.

Her whole life was absorbed in this work, and when night came, overcome with fatigue, she fell asleep, her head filled with cares which stifled all tricks of the imagination.
Michel grieved, but in silence; his feeble and dependent nature missed a child.