What did you do to grandpa Rouget, to your father,
that he should drive you away and disinherit you? If you had not
displeased him, we should all be rich now, and I should not be
reduced to misery. What did you do to your father,--you who are a
good woman? You see by your own self, I may be a good fellow and
yet be turned out of house and home,--I, the glory of the family--"
"The disgrace of it!" cried the Descoings.
"You shall leave this room, or you shall kill me!" cried Joseph,
springing on his brother with the fury of a lion.
"My God! my God!" cried Agathe, trying to separate the brothers.
At this moment Bixiou and Haudry the doctor entered. Joseph had just
knocked his brother over and stretched him on the ground.
"He is a regular wild beast," he cried. "Don't speak another word, or
I'll--"
"I'll pay you for this!" roared Philippe.
"A family explanation," remarked Bixiou.
"Lift him up," said the doctor, looking at him. "He is as ill as
Madame Descoings; undress him and put him to bed; get off his boots."
"That's easy to say," cried Bixiou, "but they must be cut off; his
legs are swollen."
Agathe took a pair of scissors. When she had cut down the boots, which
in those days were worn outside the clinging trousers, ten pieces of
gold rolled on the floor.
"There it is,--her money," murmured Philippe. "Cursed fool that I was,
I forgot it. I too have missed a fortune.
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