She expected a passionate acknowledgment of her sacrifices--she received a problem in chemistry! The poor woman left her husband abruptly and returned to the parlor, where she fell into a chair between her frightened daughters, and burst into tears.

Marguerite and Felicie took her hands, kneeling one on each side of her, not knowing the cause of her grief, and asking at intervals, "Mother, what is it ?" "My poor children, I am dying; I feel it." The answer struck home to Marguerite's heart; she saw, for the first time on her mother's face, the signs of that peculiar pallor which only comes on olive-tinted skins.
"Martha, Martha!" cried Felicie, "come quickly; mamma wants you." The old duenna ran in from the kitchen, and as soon as she saw the livid hue of the dusky skin usually high-colored, she cried out in Spanish,-- "Body of Christ! madame is dying!" Then she rushed precipitately back, told Josette to heat water for a footbath, and returned to the parlor.
"Don't alarm Monsieur Claes; say nothing to him, Martha," said her mistress.

"My poor dear girls," she added, pressing Marguerite and Felicie to her heart with a despairing action; "I wish I could live long enough to see you married and happy.

Martha," she continued, "tell Lemulquinier to go to Monsieur de Solis and ask him in my name to come here." The shock of this attack extended to the kitchen.

Josette and Martha, both devoted to Madame Claes and her daughters, felt the blow in their own affections.