"But now I ask you to reflect on our respective situations, which I will explain in a few words.

If you stay in this house your children will leave it, so that you may remain its master." "Marguerite!" cried Balthazar.
"In that case," she said, continuing her words without taking notice of her father's anger, "it will be necessary to notify the minister of your refusal, if you decide not to accept this honorable and lucrative post, which, in spite of our many efforts, we should never have obtained but for certain thousand-franc notes my uncle slipped into the glove of a lady." "My children leave me!" he exclaimed.
"You must leave us or we must leave you," she said.

"If I were your only child, I should do as my mother did, without murmuring against my fate; but my brothers and sister shall not perish beside you with hunger and despair.

I promised it to her who died there," she said, pointing to the place where her mother's bed had stood.

"We have hidden our troubles from you; we have suffered in silence; our strength is gone.