ow, languid voice, whence her words seemed to emerge in a congealed state:--
"What do you mean to do, my dear?"
"Get into bed," replied the man.
His intonation admitted of no deliberation.
The mother obeyed, and threw herself heavily on one of the pallets.
In the meantime, a sob became audible in one corner.
"What''s that?" cried the father.
The younger daughter exhibited her bleeding fist, without quitting the corner in which she was cowering.
She had wounded herself while breaking the window; she went off, near her mother''s pallet and wept silently.
It was now the mother''s turn to start up and exclaim:--
"Just see there!
What follies you commit!
She has cut herself breaking that pane for you!"
"So much the better!" said the man.
"I foresaw that."
"What?
So much the better?" retorted his wife.
"Peace!" replied the father, "I suppress the liberty of the press."
Then tearing the woman''s chemise which he was wearing, he made a strip of cloth with which he hastily swathed the little girl''s bleeding wrist.
That done, his eye fell with a satisfied expression on his torn chemise.
"And the chemise too," said he, "this has a good appearance."
An icy breeze whistled through the window and entered the room. The outer mist penetrated thither and diffused itself like a whitish sheet of wadding vaguely spread by invisible fingers.