第66章

At last Balthazar returned.As he crossed the courtyard Marguerite studied his face anxiously and could see nothing but an expression of stormy grief.When he entered the parlor she went towards him to bid him good-morning; he caught her affectionately round the waist, pressed her to his heart, kissed her brow, and whispered,--"I have been to get my passport."

The tones of his voice, his resigned look, his feeble movements, crushed the poor girl's heart; she turned away her head to conceal her tears, and then, unable to repress them, she went into the garden to weep at her ease.During breakfast, Balthazar showed the cheerfulness of a man who had come to a decision.

"So we are to start for Bretagne, uncle," he said to Monsieur Conyncks."I have always wished to go there.""It is a place where one can live cheaply," replied the old man.

"Is our father going away?" cried Felicie.

Monsieur de Solis entered, bringing Jean.

"You must leave him with me to-day," said Balthazar, putting his son beside him."I am going away to-morrow, and I want to bid him good-bye."

Emmanuel glanced at Marguerite, who held down her head.It was a gloomy day for the family; every one was sad, and tried to repress both thoughts and tears.This was not an absence, it was an exile.All instinctively felt the humiliation of the father in thus publicly declaring his ruin by accepting an office and leaving his family, at Balthazar's age.At this crisis he was great, while Marguerite was firm; he seemed to accept nobly the punishment of faults which the tyrannous power of genius had forced him to commit.When the evening was over, and father and daughter were again alone, Balthazar, who throughout the day had shown himself tender and affectionate as in the first years of his fatherhood, held out his hand and said to Marguerite with a tenderness that was mingled with despair,--"Are you satisfied with your father?"

"You are worthy of HIM," said Marguerite, pointing to the portrait of Van Claes.

The next morning Balthazar, followed by Lemulquinier, went up to the laboratory, as if to bid farewell to the hopes he had so fondly cherished, and which in that scene of his toil were living things to him.Master and man looked at each other sadly as they entered the garret they were about to leave, perhaps forever.Balthazar gazed at the various instruments over which his thoughts so long had brooded;each was connected with some experiment or some research.He sadly ordered Lemulquinier to evaporate the gases and the dangerous acids, and to separate all substances which might produce explosions.While taking these precautions, he gave way to bitter regrets, like those uttered by a condemned man before going to the scaffold.

"Here," he said, stopping before a china capsule in which two wires of a voltaic pile were dipped, "is an experiment whose results ought to be watched.If it succeeds--dreadful thought!--my children will have driven from their home a father who could fling diamonds at their feet.In a combination of carbon and sulphur," he went on, speaking to himself, "carbon plays the part of an electro-positive substance; the crystallization ought to begin at the negative pole; and in case of decomposition, the carbon would crop into crystals--""Ah! is that how it would be?" said Lemulquinier, contemplating his master with admiration.

"Now here," continued Balthazar, after a pause, "the combination is subject to the influence of the galvanic battery, which may act--""If monsieur wishes, I can increase its force.""No, no; leave it as it is.Perfect stillness and time are the conditions of crystallization--""Confound it, it takes time enough, that crystallization," cried the old valet impatiently.

"If the temperature goes down, the sulphide of carbon will crystallize," said Balthazar, continuing to give forth shreds of indistinct thoughts which were parts of a complete conception in his own mind; "but if the battery works under certain conditions of which I am ignorant--it must be watched carefully--it is quite possible that-- Ah! what am I thinking of? It is no longer a question of chemistry, my friend; we are to keep accounts in Bretagne."Claes rushed precipitately from the laboratory, and went downstairs to take a last breakfast with his family, at which Pierquin and Monsieur de Solis were present.Balthazar, hastening to end the agony Science had imposed upon him, bade his children farewell and got into the carriage with his uncle, all the family accompanying him to the threshold.There, as Marguerite strained her father to her breast with a despairing pressure, he whispered in her ear, "You are a good girl;I bear you no ill-will"; then she darted through the court-yard into the parlor, and flung herself on her knees upon the spot where her mother had died, and prayed to God to give her strength to accomplish the hard task that lay before her.She was already strengthened by an inward voice, sounding in her heart the encouragement of angels and the gratitude of her mother, when her sister, her brother, Emmanuel, and Pierquin came in, after watching the carriage until it disappeared.