I've invited him, and
he's going to return."
"Oh, he's going to return," said the lad, growing white. He added
nothing, and they ceased talking of Philippe. She began dressing to go
out, and he watched her with his great, sad eyes. Doubtless he was very
glad that matters had got settled, for he would have preferred death to
a rupture of their connection, but deep down in his heart there was a
silent anguish, a profound sense of pain, which he had no experience of
and dared not talk about. How Philippe quieted their mother's fears
he never knew, but three days later she returned to Les Fondettes,
apparently satisfied. On the evening of her return, at Nana's house, he
trembled when Francois announced the lieutenant, but the latter jested
gaily and treated him like a young rascal, whose escapade he had favored
as something not likely to have any consequences. The lad's heart was
sore within him; he scarcely dared move and blushed girlishly at the
least word that was spoken to him. He had not lived much in Philippe's
society; he was ten years his junior, and he feared him as he would
a father, from whom stories about women are concealed. Accordingly he
experienced an uneasy sense of shame when he saw him so free in Nana's
company and heard him laugh uproariously, as became a man who was
plunging into a life of pleasure with the gusto born of magnificent
health.
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