The word "commerce" presented no idea whatever to his mind; "public employment" said almost as little, for he saw no results of it.

He listened, therefore, with a submissive air, which he tried to make humble, to his mother's exhortations, but they were lost in the void, and did not reach his mind.

Nevertheless, the word "army," the thought of being a soldier, and the sight of his mother's tears did at last make him cry.

No sooner did Madame Clapart see the drops coursing down his cheeks than she felt herself helpless, and, like most mothers in such cases, she began the peroration which terminates these scenes,--scenes in which they suffer their own anguish and that of their children also.
"Well, Oscar, _promise_ me that you will be more discreet in future,--that you will not talk heedlessly any more, but will strive to repress your silly vanity," et cetera, et cetera.
Oscar of course promised all his mother asked him to promise, and then, after gently drawing him to her, Madame Clapart ended by kissing him to console him for being scolded.
"In future," she said, "you will listen to your mother, and will follow her advice; for a mother can give nothing but good counsel to her child.
We will go and see your uncle Cardot; that is our last hope.

Cardot owed a great deal to your father, who gave him his sister, Mademoiselle Husson, with an enormous dowry for those days, which enabled him to make a large fortune in the silk trade.