Mother Gerard knits with a serious air and her spectacles perched upon the tip of her nose.
Alas! during these readings Louise was the only one who heaved sighs of emotion; and sometimes even great tear-drops would tremble upon her lashes.

She was the only one who could find just the right delicate word with which to congratulate the poet, and show that she had understood and been touched by his verses.

At the most Maria would sometimes accord the young poet, still agitated by the declamation of his lines, a careless "It is very pretty!" with a commonplace smile of thanks.
She did not care for poetry, then?
Later, if he married her, would she remain indifferent to her husband's intellectual life, insensible even to the glory that he might reap?
How sad it was for Amedee to have to ask himself that question! Soon Maria inspired a new fear within him.

Maurice and his mother had been already three months in Italy, and excepting two letters that he had received from Milan, at the beginning of his journey, in the first flush of his enthusiasm, Amedee had had no news from his friend.
He excused this negligence on the part of the lazy Maurice, who had smilingly told him, on the eve of departure, not to count upon hearing from him regularly.

At each visit that Amedee paid the Gerards, Maria always asked him: "Have you received any news from your friend Maurice ?" At first he had paid no attention to this, but her persistency at length astonished him, planting a little germ of suspicion and alarm in his heart.