And thus, when she reached home after vespers, and threw herself into the deep armchair before the window of the parlor, she sent away her children, directing them to keep perfectly quiet, and despatched a message to her husband, through Lemulquinier, saying that she wished to see him.
But although the old valet did his best to make his master leave the laboratory, Balthazar scarcely heeded him.

Madame Claes thus gained time for reflection.

She sat thinking, paying no attention to the hour nor the light.

The thought of owing thirty thousand francs that could not be paid renewed her past anguish and joined it to that of the present and the future.

This influx of painful interests, ideas, and feelings overcame her, and she wept.
As Balthazar entered at last through the panelled door, the expression of his face seemed to her more dreadful, more absorbed, more distracted than she had yet seen it.