He answers my questions by monosyllables, and like a man who wishes to avoid conversation.

Whence comes this dejection, when one would think he had all he could wish for?
I should like to know! Ten o'clock .-- Michael is just gone downstairs to look for a tool he has forgotten.

I have at last succeeded in drawing from him the secret of his and Genevieve's sorrow.

Their son Robert is the cause of it! Not that he has turned out ill after all their care--not that he is idle or dissipated; but both were in hopes he would never leave them any more.

The presence of the young man was to have renewed and made glad their lives once more; his mother counted the days, his father prepared everything to receive their dear associate in their toils; and at the moment when they were thus about to be repaid for all their sacrifices, Robert had suddenly informed them that he had just engaged himself to a contractor at Versailles.
Every remonstrance and every prayer were useless; he brought forward the necessity of initiating himself into all the details of an important contract, the facilities he should have in his new position of improving himself in his trade, and the hopes he had of turning his knowledge to advantage.