own importance reduced, his authority even ignored.

But what mattered now to his young wife the ill-humor which he no longer took the trouble to conceal?  Mother, she defied her tyrant.

Now, at least, she had in this world a being upon whom she could lavish all her caresses so brutally repelled.  There existed a soul within which she reigned supreme.  What troubles would not a smile of her son have made her forget?

With the admirable instinct of an egotist, M. Favoral understood so well what passed in the mind of his wife, that he dared not complain too much of what the little fellow cost.  He made up his mind bravely; and when four years later, his daughter Gilberte was born, instead of lamenting: 

“Bash!” said he:  “God blesses large families.”