Balthazar, who had forgotten the hour at which the gates closed, would come tranquilly home next day, quite unmindful of the tortures his absence had inflicted on his family; and the happiness of getting him back proved as dangerous an excitement of feeling to his wife as her fears of the preceding night.

She kept silence and dared not question him, for when she did so on the occasion of his first absence, he answered with an air of surprise:-- "Well, what of it?
Can I not take a walk ?" Passions never deceive.

Madame Claes's anxieties corroborated the rumors she had taken so much pains to deny.

The experience of her youth had taught her to understand the polite pity of the world.

Resolved not to undergo it a second time, she withdrew more and more into the privacy of her own house, now deserted by society and even by her nearest friends.
Among these many causes of distress, the negligence and disorder of Balthazar's dress, so degrading to a man of his station, was not the least bitter to a woman accustomed to the exquisite nicety of Flemish life.