"I have sold my two pictures, let us start for Berry; you have two weeks' leave of absence." After writing to her godmother to announce their arrival, Agathe and Joseph started the next evening for their trip to Issoudun, leaving Philippe to his fate.

The diligence rolled through the rue d'Enfer toward the Orleans highroad.

When Agathe saw the Luxembourg, to which Philippe had been transferred, she could not refrain from saying,-- "If it were not for the Allies he would never be there!" Many sons would have made an impatient gesture and smiled with pity; but the artist, who was alone with his mother in the coupe, caught her in his arms and pressed her to his heart, exclaiming:-- "Oh, mother! you are a mother just as Raphael was a painter.

And you will always be a fool of a mother!" Madame Bridau's mind, diverted before long from her griefs by the distractions of the journey, began to dwell on the purpose of it.

She re-read the letter of Madame Hochon, which had so stirred up the lawyer Desroches.