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 All you can do is to let her become insane and accuse you of everything disgusting! She was horrible in Algiers. I tell you I would refuse to let her adopt me now, even if she wished to! There are some things nobody can bear. I would refuse!"

He spoke with more vehemence than Ogle had heard from him; and there were gloomy lights in his dark and averted eyes as he made this final declaration, which was one his listener found somewhat informing. At least it confirmed the gossip of the femme de chambre at Algiers, and it strikingly did not confirm the account Hyacinthe's mother had given him of her quarrel with Mlle. Daurel. Evidently there were reticences really to the credit of both the mother and the son. The two did not plan deliberately together, saying, "Let us agree upon such and such a story"; they had been opportunists, but by no means plotters. Moreover, it was plain that their life at "Colline des Roses" had indeed been one of those purgatories known to the households of opinionated old rich women; that they had endured it in the hope of Hyacinthe's adoption and prospective inheritance; and that there had been a quarrel over the too great talent of this young Mozart of bridge. Something like desperation had been the result, and