If he cuts the wood on them he destroys your last chance of safety in the future.

My cousin Balthazar owes at this moment thirty thousand francs to the house of Protez and Chiffreville.

How can you pay them?
What will you live on?
If Claes persists in sending for reagents, retorts, voltaic batteries, and other such playthings, what will become of you?
Your whole property, except the house and furniture, has been dissipated in gas and carbon; yesterday he talked of mortgaging the house, and in answer to a remark of mine, he cried out, 'The devil!' It was the first sign of reason I have known him show for three years." Madame Claes pressed the notary's arm, and said in a tone of suffering, "Keep it secret." Overwhelmed by these plain words of startling clearness, the poor woman, pious as she was, could not pray; she sat still on her chair between her children, with her prayer-book open, but not turning its leaves; her mind was sunk in meditations as absorbing as those of her husband.

The Spanish sense of honor, the Flemish integrity, resounded in her soul with a peal louder than any organ.

The ruin of her children was accomplished! Between them and their father's honor she must no longer hesitate.