Page:Eekhoud - The New Carthage.djvu/70

42 to reflect? Or did the moderate man fear the effect that such an extremely rigorous act would have upon public opinion? Laurent escaped the prison of Saint Hubert. Only, to the numerous interdictions which weighed down upon him, his guardian added one forbidding him entrance to the factory and converse with the workmen.

"As if he were not ill-bred and common enough without that," added Felicité, charged with keeping a tighter rein than ever upon the unnatural child. "Beware, Peasant, if I catch you rooting about the workroom!" said Saint-Fardier, accompanying this menace with a twirl of his cane.

As if Laurent would have recoiled before the dangers of a whipping! He tried more than once to violate the interdiction, and to see Tilbak, to thank him and convey to him his faithful affection, but they had not forgotten the key in the door connecting the garden with the factory, and the date of his return to school came before he had found the chance to climb the wall in order to visit the foreman.

In the following vacation, Felicité told Laurent, in the guise of welcome news, that his sailor had not remained in the factory for long after the affair of "The Swiss Family Robinson." Particularly designated for the ill-humor and meddling ways of Saint-Fardier, the much-enduring and very stoic man had finally replied in kind, and the satrap, who was seeking only a single pretext for getting rid of him, did not allow the occasion to slip by.

All broken up by this news, Laurent sought Gina, counting upon interesting her in the fate of Tilbak and his family, for the poor folk had children.

During the drama which ended with the discharge