She perhaps suffers much; but what is this pain compared to what she would feel if she knew that her son, her true son, was in prison, accused of murder ?" "That is what I keep thinking," said Noel, "to console myself for this sight.

For I still love her, my old friend; I shall always regard her as a mother.

You have heard me curse her, have you not?
I have twice treated her very harshly.

I thought I hated her; but now, at the moment of losing her, I forget every wrong she has done me, only to remember her tenderness.

Yes, for her, death is far preferable! And yet I do not think, no, I cannot think her son guilty." "No! what, you too ?" Old Tabaret put so much warmth and vivacity into this exclamation, that Noel looked at him with astonishment.