Her tender solicitude for Balthazar showed itself in the resolution she had this day taken.

By freeing his property from encumbrance she secured his independence, and prevented all future disputes by separating his interests from those of her children.

She hoped to see him happy until she closed her eyes on earth, and she studied to transmit the tenderness of her own heart to Marguerite, trusting that his daughter might continue to be to him an angel of love, while exercising over the family a protecting and conservative authority.

Might she not thus shed the light of her love upon her dear ones from beyond the grave?
Nevertheless, she was not willing to lower the father in the eyes of his daughter by initiating her into the secret dangers of his scientific passion before it became necessary to do so.
She studied Marguerite's soul and character, seeking to discover if the girl's own nature would lead her to be a mother to her brothers and her sister, and a tender, gentle helpmeet to her father.
Madame Claes's last days were thus embittered by fears and mental disquietudes which she dared not confide to others.

Conscious that the recent scene had struck her death-blow, she turned her thoughts wholly to the future.