He went up to the assault with his heart beating and his face rather pale.

In the dim light which filtered through the blinds he saw his mother dressed in black, and with an air of solemnity in keeping with that funereal room.
"Monsieur le vicomte," she said when she saw him, rising and taking his hand to lead him to his father's bed, "there died your father,--a man of honor; he died without reproach from his own conscience.

His spirit is there.

Surely he groaned in heaven when he saw his son degraded by imprisonment for debt.

Under the old monarchy that stain could have been spared you by obtaining a lettre de cachet and shutting you up for a few days in a military prison .-- But you are here; you stand before your father, who hears you.