Ernest Pérochon

“ She asked:
"Are the children well?"
"As well as can be, thank you.—At first they kept asking for you, but now everything goes on oiled wheels. Violette has brought them around to her."
She turned her face away. Only then did he notice how disturbed she was and he said good-naturedly:
"You know, Madeleine, you've given us, all through four years, your best work and your best affection. Whenever you feel like dropping in at the Moulinettes, we'll count it a pleasure.—And I hope you may live in happiness and health, Madeleine." ”

“ Madeleine, I don't like the way you talk. We mustn't invite trouble, but we must take it as it comes. Have a good cry—that'll relieve you. For all of two weeks now you've let this thing gnaw at you like a bad fever; is it sensible to work yourself into a falling sickness just because you're going to a new place? Only thirty, and handsome and big and strong as you are? ”

“ They had given her so much happiness and they had caused her so much anxiety.
She remembered their Sunday walks, their games by the pond.... She remembered the troubled hours, the anguished watches by Lalie's bed. That last memory was to her like a savage tear in her flesh; she would never cease hearing those plaintive cries:
"Nêne! It hurts, Nêne!"
Lord knew they had captured her heart: Jo with his square little paws that refused to be kept clean; Lalie with her pitiful, martyred little fingers. ”