“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.