Don't worry about me.

I have so much work to do, I shall work." In the evening when Thomas and Francois came home and learnt the news, they did not seem particularly surprised by it.

They had doubtless felt that things would end like this.

And they bowed to the _denouement_, not venturing to say a word, since it was their father himself who announced the decision which had been taken, with his usual air of composure.

As for Antoine, who on his own side quivered with love for Lise, he gazed with doubting, anxious eyes at his father, who had thus had the courage to pluck out his heart.