Balthazar was again so absorbed that he did not notice Josephine's condition.

He took Jean upon his knee and trotted him mechanically, pondering, no doubt, the problem he now had the means of solving.

He saw them bring the footbath to his wife, who was still in the parlor, too weak to rise from the low chair in which she was lying; he gazed abstractedly at his daughters now attending on their mother, without inquiring the cause of their tender solicitude.

When Marguerite or Jean attempted to speak aloud, Madame Claes hushed them and pointed to Balthazar.

Such a scene was of a nature to make a young girl think; and Marguerite, placed as she was between her father and mother, was old enough and sensible enough to weigh their conduct.
There comes a moment in the private life of every family when the children, voluntarily or involuntarily, judge their parents.